You Can't Optimize What You Can't See…Or Can You?

CCTV camera systems have historically been a key tool for traffic management operations, allowing them to find incidents impacting the roadways. CCTV systems have limits though…in fact that limit is about half a mile. With an estimated 4+ million miles of roadways in the United States, that would mean we need to have 8+ million CCTV cameras installed to be able to see the entire system. Not to mention, needing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people to watch all 8 million cameras 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That isn't feasible…or is it?

AI for Roadways Exists

We talk a lot about AI (Artificial Intelligence) these days. It seems like everything from toothbrushes to cars to our homes are all using AI. And yet the adoption of AI in U.S. transportation has been slow, despite its vast potential to revolutionize our infrastructure. While we often talk about AI on our roadways as something coming, the reality is AI exists on our roadways today and is already delivering value. When we leverage AI to modernize our roadways we see cost savings and enhanced roadway safety, we enable workforce augmentation and accurate traffic data collection, and we optimize traffic flows.

That last benefit, optimizing traffic flows, is what allows us to see all 4+ million miles of roadways, even though we could never install 8+ million CCTV cameras or monitor them all. With AI, we don't have to see the roadways with our eyes but instead we can see the roadways through billions of data points, fusing them together to create a picture of what is happening on every roadway, over every mile. No extra hardware installs necessary. These systems can see for us, alerting us about where to look and when, and ensuring our traffic operators can spend time on the most value-added part of their job, optimizing and managing traffic flows, not watching for incidents (more about that benefit in my next article!).

Does AI really deliver?

A few pioneering agencies are leading the way in AI-powered roadway infrastructure, and they are reaping the benefits of these advanced technologies. The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (Mobility Authority), an independent government agency operating several of the major toll roads in the rapidly growing Austin metro and surrounding region, is one of those agencies. The Mobility Authority has always prioritized fast abnormality detection, diligently managing traffic since the first toll lanes opened in 2007.

They knew that as the region grew, manual detection would quickly become an obsolete way to quickly detect anomalies, and that technology would have to be the answer. Their early adoption of AI to modernize their roadways has resulted in a 324% increase in incidents detected and an average 11 minute faster detection time. This ensures that even if The Mobility Authority can't stop the first incident, they can stop the second, keeping roadway users safe and traffic moving.

Conclusion

More CCTV cameras and more people won't drive roadway excellence. Transportation agencies cannot transform the transportation system by simply using the same tools and processes they have used in the past. Fundamental changes require a new approach. Public and private partnerships driving our AI-driven transportation modernization efforts are key to optimizing our traffic flows and achieving the transformation needed to ensure a safer, more reliable, more sustainable, and more affordable experience for all travelers.