Rijkswaterstaat is installing and testing...
nineteen smart traffic lights.
These traffic lights communicate with vehicles and navigation apps.
Today I’m off to find out how they work.
But they also have a course for staff...
so I’m going to take that first.
Question 1: What can you do with an iTLI?
In this series I’m looking into how Rijkswaterstaat...
and its partners...
are making Smart Mobility work.
Great, haha.
I’ll be looking at how they’re using new technologies...
to get people from door to door smarter and more safely.
That way, we travel smart together.
Hi Elze! - Ah!
Busy, I see! - Yes!
So you can tell me more about smart traffic lights?
Yes.
I’m Guido, iTLI project leader at Rijkswaterstaat.
They’re really handy, those smart traffic lights, aren’t they?
Yes. They communicate with your car or navigation app...
And soon you’ll be able to see how long you’ll have to wait...
before the traffic light turns green....
and it will also recommend a suitable driving speed.
And it makes it more convenient for me on the road, too...
because I won’t have to stop so often.
Yes, that’s right.
And besides giving you information, the iTLI also uses information from your car...
or navigation app to improve the traffic flow.
That way, we can give earlier priority to emergency services or lorries, for instance...
and if lorries have to stop less often, that cuts down on a lot of emissions.
That’s so clever! Now I want to see what one looks like in real life.
There are plans to install a lot more iTLIs across the country.
On my course I learned that Rijkswaterstaat...
is a member of the Talking Traffic partnership
and has just installed nineteen iTLIs.
They want to learn as much from them as possible...
so they’re testing products from various manufacturers.
And the iTLIs are installed at complex intersections like this one.
Hi, I’m Elze. I’ve come to have a look.
Hi, I’m Emiel. Traffic engineer at Rijkswaterstaat.
Is this one of these iTLIs?
Yes it is. All the data is received in this cabinet, so this is where we do all the calculations...
and then it sends a signal to the traffic light...
and it changes to red or green.
Oh, I recognise this box from my course!
That’s the most important one.
With this little box we’ll soon be able to communicate with navigation apps...
and navigation apps will send information back to the traffic light.
And the traffic light can use that information.
And does this iTLI communicate with other iTLIs nearby, too?
This traffic light is in a series of eight traffic lights…
belonging to Arnhem and Rheden councils and the province...
and they can communicate with each other.
So as soon as traffic is directed to this intersection at another traffic light...
this traffic light gets to hear about it.
Then it can use that information...
and switch to green in time to let the traffic through.
We started the project three years ago, and it has been quite a learning curve.
We had to make all kinds of arrangements with the councils and the province...
and ultimately we installed them.
So they’re brand new. - Very new!
And is this one of the nineteen iTLIs? - It is!
Can I already see how long I’ll have to wait before the lights turn green at all nineteen sites?
Not yet, but hopefully it will all be up and running by the time this vlog is published.
Over the next couple of weeks we will be working hard to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s.
OK, so what’s the next step?
Over the next three years we’ll be making another eighty traffic lights smarter.
Working with colleagues and other road operators.
We will also be helping to produce the national standards...
which can be used elsewhere in Europe as well.
And after those three years, how do you see things going in the future?
In the future, I think the data from the iTLIs will be used ...
in self-driving cars.
But until then, you can benefit from iTLIs in your navigation app.
Sounds great, I’ll do that.
So there we have it – installing smart traffic lights will make driving more convenient...
and there will be fewer traffic jams.
This way, we travel smart together.
Oh.
Yes, I passed the course!