FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) \u2014 The more we develop technology, the more improvements can be made to our roads.<\/p>\n
Watch Ali’s report in the video player below<\/p>\n
How Oakland County & U-M are using GPS data to recalibrate traffic lights, reduce crashes & wait times<\/p>\n
The University of Michigan is using GPS technology from inside your car that will not only mean less time waiting in traffic, it will also make roads safer.<\/p>\n
The system only needs GPS data from 5% of cars to recalibrate traffic signals, and so far, updates have been made to 13 intersections in Oakland County, specifically in Farmington Hills and Royal Oak.<\/p>\n
There are also plans to expand the program.<\/p>\n
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WXYZ<\/p>\n
For James Dorsey of Detroit, the thought of his GPS data being used makes him feel a little uneasy.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust off hearing it you would think its weird, you know GPS data from your car being used, you don\u2019t know where it\u2019s being used, so yeah, it sounds a little iffy. If I hear the backstory, I wouldn\u2019t mind,” Dorsey said. <\/p>\n
Here’s the backstory. The University of Michigan teamed up with the Road Commission of Oakland County to update traffic lights, taking GPS data from cars to make those updates.<\/p>\n
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WXYZ<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we know the performance, we can identify where it can be potentially improved, and we can diagnose in terms of the problem,” Henry Liu, from U-M Civil and Environmental Engineering, said. <\/p>\n
Liu points to two big benefits \u2013\u00a0cost savings and safety.<\/p>\n
Oakland County spends about $5,000 to recalibrate traffic lights. That includes the cost of having people count the cars, the labor in calculating the timing and the time to physically reprogram the lights. <\/p>\n
Pulling GPA data is half the cost at $2,500. <\/p>\n
Second, improved traffic flow means improved safety. <\/p>\n
\u201cDoes this make our roads safer?\u201d I asked Liu<\/p>\n
\u201dOh yeah, definitely. They will help with safety as well because when you have smoother traffic flow. It also reduces in terms of the rear-end collisions too,” he said. <\/p>\n
So far, four signals have been updated on 8 Mile between Orchard Lake and Brentwood St. in Farmington Hills. It’s led to a 30% reduction in delays and a 40% reduction in stops.<\/p>\n
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WXYZ<\/p>\n
Nine signals have been updated on 12 Mile in Royal Oak between Vinsetta and North Connecticut Ave. It’s led to a 20% reduction in both delays and stops. <\/p>\n
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WXYZ<\/p>\n
A $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation is helping expand the program and helping recalibrate an additional 40 intersections in Oakland County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) \u2014 The more we develop technology, the more improvements can be made to our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4551,794,26779,26780,4553,143,904,145,144,26781,4552],"class_list":["post-39052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-7-action-news","tag-detroit","tag-gps","tag-gps-data","tag-metro-detroit","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-county","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-university-of-michigan","tag-wxyz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}