Ecobreves – CHILE: “Smart” Traffic Signals

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SANTIAGO, Oct 10 2005 (IPS) - Four computer science students at the Federico Santa María Technical University in Valparaíso, 120 km west of the Chilean capital, have developed the “Smart Traffic” program, which will modernize the coordination of traffic signals along urban vehicle circulation routes. This “constitutes a great innovation that will help rationalize the use of roads and reduce environmental contamination and the emissions of climate changing gases,” urban transit planning expert Roberto Figueroa told Tierramérica.

The program uses video cameras for constant analysis of the flow of traffic, and orders immediate changes, if necessary, in the timing of the traffic signals to prevent traffic jams, according to creators Andrea Guzmán, Eduardo Solís, Miguel Brintrup and Víctor Peña y Lillo.