Boston's streets are often packed with cars. It's an old city with lots of people, and traffic can be worse than in Los Angeles. To fix this, Boston's working with Google on a new idea.
Project Green Light uses AI to change how traffic lights work. The goal is to cut down on traffic jams and reduce pollution from cars stopping and starting all the time.
Jascha Franklin-Hodge, who's in charge of Boston's streets, says the project gives traffic engineers important data. They can change traffic lights by just a few seconds, which helps traffic flow better on busy roads.
The project's already showing good results. On Huntington Avenue and Opera Place, and Armory Street and Green Street, stop-and-go traffic has dropped by more than half.
Around the world, cities using Project Green Light have seen car emissions go down by about 10%. That's a big deal for Boston, which CNBC says is one of the worst U.S. cities for traffic. In 2023, drivers there lost an average of 42 hours stuck in traffic.
Matheus Vervloet, who works on the project at Google, said:
"Through Project Green Light, we are using AI to improve the lives of people in cities around the globe by reducing traffic and emissions. The success of Green Light is only possible thanks to the partnership we have with cities like Boston. 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."
Right now, Project Green Light is working at over 70 intersections worldwide, helping about 30 million car trips each month. Seattle's using it too. In the next few years, Google wants to bring it to hundreds of cities and tens of thousands of intersections.
