Boston announced Thursday that it is partnering with Google in an effort to optimize its traffic lights and hopefully reduce congestion on city streets.
The partnership with Google's Project Green Light team will use artificial intelligence to model traffic patterns and create signal timing recommendations to reduce stop-and-go traffic and emissions, the city said in a press release.
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Boston is routinely ranked as one of the worst cities in the world for traffic delays. A scorecard released in June found that Boston drivers spent about 88 hours in traffic last year.
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The city said it has already implemented four recommendations at intersections in Fenway-Kenmore, Mission Hill and Jamaica Plain by changing signal timing.
“One of the most frustrating parts of living in a major city is traffic, so Boston is taking every step to combat congestion and get people to where they need to go,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement. “We often find that small traffic hotspots from mistimed signals or curbside issues can swell into larger congestion, so targeting these micro spots goes a long way. This innovative work with the latest technology from Google’s Project Green Light will help relieve the frustrating congestion that so many of our residents face, while helping to reduce emissions and inefficiencies on our city streets.”
For the past five months, the city said Project Green Light has analyzed traffic at hundreds of signalized intersections using AI and Google Maps driving trends to provide recommendations for optimization of traffic signals and patterns.
The Boston Transportation Department’s traffic engineers then assessed each recommendation for safety, feasibility, and effectiveness to determine if the recommendation could be implemented. Once implemented, Project Green Light then measures the impact on traffic patterns and provides this analysis to the city to continue monitoring for any needed changes.
At the intersections of Huntington Ave. and Opera Place and at Amory Street and Green Street, the city said stop-and-go traffic has been reduced by over 50%. Cities around the world that use Project Greenlight have experienced a 10% average reduction in emissions.
“We hear from residents throughout the city that traffic can be stressful and takes time away from family, friends, and work,” said Jascha Franklin-Hodge, the city's chief of streets. “Project Green Light provides a powerful tool that helps us optimize traffic flow on our streets. It provides our traffic engineers with important data to tweak a signal by seconds which can help reduce congestion along a corridor. We look forward to continuing this partnership as one way to help our streets work better for everyone."
Project Green Light is now live in 14 cities on four continents. Boston and Seattle are the only U.S. cities that are currently part of the program.
“The success of Green Light is only possible thanks to the partnership we have with cities like Boston," said Matheus Vervloet, product manager at Google. "We're encouraged by the initial results we’ve seen in Boston and look forward to working closely with the city to scale this technology to more intersections.”
