About: Scalable Urban Traffic Control

Scalable Urban Traffic Control (Surtrac) is an adaptive traffic control system developed by researchers at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. Surtrac dynamically optimizes the control of traffic signals to improve traffic flow for both urban grids and corridors; optimization goals include less waiting, reduced traffic congestion, shorter trips, and less pollution. The core control engine combines schedule-driven intersection control with decentralised coordination mechanisms. Since June 2012, a pilot implementation of the Surtrac system has been deployed on nine intersections in the East Liberty neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Surtrac reduced travel times by more than 25% on average, and wait times were reduced by an average of 40%. A second phase of the pilot p