Intelligent Traffic-Lights Management by Exploiting Smart Antenna Technology (ITSAT)

Existing traffic lights’ timings and switching patterns do not operate with real-time traffic conditions. This results in wastage of time, fuel, and higher emission of CO₂. This paper proposes an intelligent traffic-lights management system by exploiting Smart Antenna Technology (already installed on cellular Base Stations). With the proposed approach, the traffic lights’ duration adapts to the real-time traffic flow. Our proposed approach does not delve into improvements of Smart Antenna Technology but suggests to extract cell-phones’ location information, which translates it into traffic density and use the information to control traffic lights’ timings. The work is based on the assumption that the cell-phones density corresponds to the vehicles’ density on the roadways. We also propose a Notifier integrated into the TDC. It alerts the driver about the signal transition from red to green, and thus helps drivers use their cell phones serenely for the transitory duration the light stays the red. The analysis shows that the proposed approach not only improves the Average Waiting Time (AWT) by 59.3% but also saves 3.42 gallons of fuel, and reduces CO₂ emission by 67 pounds per year for each commuter.