NYC Cars are going to get Street-Smart
American streets are going to get a lot smarter. And, leading the way are the streets of New York City along with Tampa, Florida and Wyoming.
On 14th September 2015, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Fox announced that Big Apple will be the main testing ground for “Connected Vehicle” pilot program. Under the pilot program, smart technology will be installed in NYC cars that will caution drivers and motorists of forthcoming dangers and traffic.
U.S. Department of Transportation gave New York City $20 million for retrofitting as many as 10,000 cars, yellow taxis, buses, etc. with a smart sensory device by 2017. The initial phase of the project, which involves designing the mechanism – technology, hardware and alert systems, will be completed by 2016.
The sensory device, installed in a vehicle, will transmit signals and inform other cars about a possible collision. Meanwhile, a warning system for other drivers might include a couple of things such as alerts for using brakes or slowing down.
A Typical Day of Traffic Congestion in NYC
The street-infrastructure such as traffic signals will be retrofitted with the device in the following areas of New York City:
• First, Second, Fifth and Sixth Avenues between 14th St. and 66th St. in Manhattan
• Flatbush Avenue between Grand Army Plaza and Tillary St. in Brooklyn
• The FDR Drive between 50th St. and 90th St.
The pilot program’s main focus will be on Manhattan because it is considered one of the most congested traffic-areas. The program will also conduct similar tests in Tampa city of Florida as well as Wyoming in order to check the technology under different traffic conditions.
It is already being tested in Ann Arbor, Michigan since 2012, where the “Connected Vehicle” pilot program counted on apps to warn drivers about several things such as:
• If the car in the front or the car ahead was braking
• If there is a car in the driver’s blind spot
• If there is a red light ahead, at the next signal
U.S. Transportation officials are in the process of building apps that would emit signals from the pedestrian’s mobile. Vehicles would pick up the signal and avoid an impending collision. It said that the technology can reduce collision by almost 80 percent.
Polly Trottenberg, New York City’s Transportation Commissioner, informed The Huffington Post, “We have to work out how an app would work for the visually impaired on routes they frequently navigate, when the walk signal comes on. Not every intersection has an audible one,” “And not everyone has a smartphone. We need to create something so people have the app in an affordable, convenient way.”
U.S. Department of Transportation is taking commendable as well as innovative efforts in ensuring traffic safety of Americans. Hope the efforts bear fruits in near future and end the problem of traffic congestion.”