In 2023, reports revealed that traffic congestion in the U.S. worsened in 2022. Experts said that although traffic levels in the United States are below the pre-pandemic period, millions of Americans are still negatively affected.
In 2022, it was estimated that U.S. drivers lost an average of 51 hours a year because of traffic congestion, which is almost 1 hour per week.
This is why many tech companies are making efforts to help the U.S. reduce its traffic congestion and here's how Google is doing its part.
Project Green Light: Google to Use AI to Help Reduce US Traffic
According to CBS News' latest report, traffic congestion not only affects the daily lives of people, but it is also harmful to the environment.
Now, Google wants to help solve this issue using its new Project Green Light system. This new program relies on artificial intelligence and vast map databases.
The Project Green Light system is designed by Google to effectively optimize traffic lights around the world. As of writing, Google is already using the new system in one U.S. city: Seattle.
Google explained that the new anti-traffic project can provide suggestions to city engineers, which they can decide to implement or reject.
"We had one case where we moved four seconds from a north-south street to an east-west street for a particular time of day, so then that can help reduce some of that stop-and-go traffic," said Seattle Department of Transportation Engr. Laura Wojcicki, one of the experts that used the Project Green Light.
How effective is Google's Project Green Light?
New Atlas reported that Google's Project Green Light is quite efficient; being able to reduce stop-and-go traffic by up to 30%. Aside from this, the new system can also help lessen intersection emissions by 10%.
Right now, Google is already partnering with more than 12 cities across the world. It's using Project Green Light to time recommendations on 70 different intersections.
What's great about this new service is that Google offers it for free. Road engineers can use the Project Green Light system via a web interface.
"It means a lot for drivers and it also means a lot for emissions," said Engr. Wojcicki. She also said that solving traffic congestion in intersections not only saves people time, but doing so can also help tackle the worsening climate crisis.
