Project Green Light: AI-Powered Traffic Lights Now in Boston

The power of Google and AI may be the Knight in Shining Armor for Boston’s traffic problem.

Last year, the city ranked 8^th in the world for highest traffic delays.

On Thursday, the City of Boston, Streets Cabinet, and the Innovation and Technology Cabinet announced a new initiative to find a solution.

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What Is Project Green Light?

Green Light by Google “optimizes traffic lights to reduce vehicle emissions in cities, helping mitigate climate change and improving urban mobility.”

Google uses AI to model traffic patterns and create signal timing recommendations that can reduce stop-and-go traffic emissions.

Its goal is two-fold: decrease emissions and lessen traffic.

“We often find that small traffic hotspots from mistimed signals or curbside issues can swell into large congestion, so targeting these micro spots goes a long way,” said Mayor Michelle Wu.

Project Green Light in Boston

Project Green Light has analyzed traffic in Boston for the past five months with the help of Google Maps and AI to develop recommendations for optimization of traffic signals and patterns.

“The Boston Transportation Department’s traffic engineers assessed each recommendation for safety, feasibility, and effectiveness to determine if the recommendation could be implemented,” said the City of Boston. “Once implemented, Project Green Light then measures the impact on traffic patterns and provides this analysis to BTD to continue monitoring for any future needed changes.”

Will Project Green Light Actually Work?

According to Boston officials, stop-and-go traffic has been reduced by 50% at the intersections of Huntington Ave. and Opera Place and Armory Street and Green Street.

The program has also helped the City monitor traffic signal infrastructure by ensuring signal control boxes, copper/fiber-optic connections, and loop sensors are properly working.

Needless to say, in just a few months, Project Green Light has cured a lot of headaches.

Project Green Light in Massachusetts

Currently, Boston and Seattle are the only US cities included in the Green Light program, but I think it’s about time Providence City officials reach out to Google and hop on board.

Google can’t build bridges, but maybe the power of AI could.

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Gallery Credit: Gazelle

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Well this is surely a blast from the past. While exploring Google Maps' street view feature recently, I came across an old still from 2012 mixed in with the more recent ones. It showed an almost decade-old look at Fall River's New Harbour Mall, which is now dead and has been replaced by the stores at the SouthCoast Marketplace. The more I looked around the intersection on William Canning Boulevard, the more I began to see remnants of the past, some that may now be long-forgotten for some. This Fall River intersection has changed so much in the past near-decade, but if you're needing a little look in the rearview to see how far it's come, check out some of the following stills.

Gallery Credit: Kari Jakobsen