GRIDSMART, a Hardin Valley-based company, has donated traffic-time collection devices that will be installed along Kingston Pike between Bearden Hill and West Towne Mall. Three other intersections — Middlebrook Pike and Vanosdale Road; Middlebrook and East Weisgarber Road; and East Weisgarber and Interstate 40 — will also be equipped with the new technology.
The devices, part of the company's new STREETSMART line, will allow traffic managers to monitor the flow of cars in and out of intersections and make adjustments to reduce gridlock. The technology follows vehicles as they advance through multiple intersections, gauging speed and congestion.
All of the data collected is anonymous, said city spokesman Jesse Mayshark.
The information can then be used to immediately send alerts, change traffic-signal timing and push alternate routes before major congestion occurs, according to the company.
The new equipment is in addition to the city's planned Advanced Traffic Management System, a roughly $9 million multiyear project to upgrade the city's two-decades-old traffic control system.
Eventually, the city aims to have a smart traffic system that will interact with smart cars, sending signals back and forth that will allow both to operate more efficiently, said Mayshark.
"If you have a completely connected traffic system — a smart traffic infrastructure and smart vehicles moving through it — you have this constant communication going on," Mayshark said. "If makes sense for car to go 27 miles instead of 31 to hit green lights, then that information will be available and acted on in real time. That's the long-term big picture."
Mayor Madeline Rogero and GRIDSMART CEO Bill Malkes will formally announce the partnership next week at an event near the intersection of Kingston Pike and Northshore Drive.
©2017 the Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tenn.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
