The Future of Smart Traffic Management is here: 5 Ways to Increase Road Safety and Flow Using AI Video Technology

Today's traffic sensors specialize in detecting "simple" traffic incidents such as cars running red lights or exceeding speed limits. Traffic surveillance also helps monitor road conditions. However, when it comes to analyzing more complex incidents and automating operations, today's transportation systems (ITS) reach their limits. 

Here's where a new generation of smart video technology will help human operators take modern traffic management to the next level.

CCTV cameras equipped with cutting-edge software applications are taking on more complex roles, making traffic safer and more efficient. Processing large amounts of traffic data enables smarter decision making, both in long term planning and in real-time control, for example, preventing congestion and accidents. Edge computing moves data analytics from servers to cameras, reducing infrastructure and data transfer volume.

Example of video-based traffic modeling using AI Video Analytics

Smart Traffic Surveillance combining IoT security cameras and AI Video Analytics helps authorities, traffic planners and highway operators to systematically monitor and understand road users' behavior. Gaining valuable insights from video data to optimize traffic flow and minimize accident risks - automatically and in real time - has never been so easy.

In many cases, existing camera systems installed along city streets and roads can be turned into smart all-rounders in traffic management. Azena offers everything you need to get more out of surveillance cameras and drive traffic management evolution.

3 reasons to use AI Video Analytics to improve traffic safety and flow

• Safety: too many deaths and injuries on the road

About 1.3 million people die on the world's roads and 20 - 50 million are injured every year. Road traffic crashes are a major cause of death among all age groups. - warns the World Health Organisation.

3700 die on the roads every day, particularly pedestrians and cyclists lose out.

• Congestion: too many hours wasted in traffic jams

Congestion costs each American nearly 100 hours, $1,400 a year. - INRIX, Inc. found in its study.

The overall economic damage caused by poorly managed traffic is likely to be too high in many countries worldwide. Is this the price we pay for boundless mobility today? We should not!

• Planning: keeping up with rapid change

Smart traffic management needs planning based on real-time insights, focused on tomorrow's opportunities rather than solving yesterday's problems. Today's traffic management, based on far too long planning cycles and retrospective analysis, cannot cope with this. 

As long as there is room for improvement in traffic management, operators and authorities should keep looking for new ways how innovative technology can help solve the problems.

Worth reading: 3 Good Reasons why Now is the Time for AI Video Analytics to Improve Traffic Safety and Flow

How smart video technology can help increase road safety and flow

Azena provides traffic operators and authorities with the full infrastructure they need to turn surveillance cameras into smart traffic managers. Using our camera OS, each device can be empowered with a wide range of AI video capabilities from our Application Store. 

The new possibilities that AI video analytics offers camera owners and system integrators are almost limitless, so that we can only give a rough overview here.

The key to smart traffic monitoring and control is integrating AI-enabled cameras into IoT ecosystems connecting a wide range of functions and systems and enabling lean data exchange. Since smart cameras do not deliver raw footage but analyze video data right in the devices (edge processing) delivering insights only, the amount of data transferred to other systems and processed there can be significantly reduced. 

Smart Traffic Surveillance using AI apps from the Azena Application Store

With the Azena groundbreaking Camera OS, traffic operators and authorities are free to install as many apps for a variety of tasks on their surveillance cameras and combine them as needed. With just a few clicks, surveillance cameras turn into real business all-rounders!