New Smart Traffic Technology To Be Operational Early December In Upper Merion Township
By Mark Abrams
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The latest in a series of smart traffic signals are being installed along Mall Boulevard at The King Of Prussia Mall in time for the holiday shopping season.
Eric Goldstein, executive director of the King of Prussia district, says Upper Merion Township is using what amounts to a computer-controlled traffic light control system that thinks for itself - thanks to video cameras that capture the traffic in motion.
"It changes the lights based upon what it sees in its camera system," says Goldstein. "So, if there are more vehicles moving in one direction and less in the other direction, it will allow that direction with more cars to have a green light for a longer period of time to move the flow of traffic."
Goldstein says the new signals installed in Upper Merion have dramatically reduced traffic congestion at intersections along Route 202, North Gulph Road, South Gulph Road, DeKalb Pike, and Henderson Road.
And now, Goldstein says, with smart signals being installed at five intersections along Mall Boulevard and activated in December, mall shoppers won't be sitting in frustrating long traffic lines to get out of the King of Prussia mall this holiday shopping season.