Driving through midtown Manhattan is usually annoying and difficult. More often than not you’re often stuck in a gridlock of cabs, trucks and pedestrians. You can often walk faster than making it through through traffic. Now the city of New York is attempting to change all that through a new management system - Midtown In Motion - that will allow city traffic engineers to readjust traffic lights based on where congestion is the highest. The system will work remotely to ease up traffic in the area in real-time.
The technology works through microwave sensors, traffic video cameras and E-ZPass readers that are placed at 23 intersections around the city, which send information wirelessly to the city’s Traffic Management Center in Long Island City. The data is then transmitted to mobile devices for public viewing.
Mayor Bloomberg, who unveiled the system at a press conference said, “They can sit there and touch buttons to turn a light green quicker, leave it on green quicker, leave it off green quicker, whatever the case may be.”
The system, which cost $1.6 million to build has been developed since last year. Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said in a statement, “Midtown in Motion brings dynamic controls for a dynamic city to help keep its transportation network and economy moving.”
Of course, no one should expect the system to magically make everything better in a few weeks, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
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