Do you know that? You stand for a red light, there is no other traffic and yet it seems to take forever before it turns green. Or a traffic light jumps from red to green as soon as you arrive.
Many traffic lights in the Netherlands use so -called detection loops to ‘see’ that a vehicle is coming. These are loops of copper wire, inlaid in the road surface, which generate a magnetic field.
As soon as a car or engine stops above such a loop, the metal disrupts the field. This disruption is noticed by a detector, which then gives a signal to the traffic light system. This technology has been used for decades to make traffic flow more efficiently.
Although most detection loops are tailored to cars, they also take other road users into account. Cyclists and scooters for example, although that is not always flawless. Because bicycles and scooters are often lighter and contain less metal, they can sometimes not be properly noticed by the loops in the road surface.
Municipalities try to solve this by adjusting the loops more sensitively or placing separate push buttons at traffic lights. According to engineering firm Goudappel Coffeng, specialized in mobility issues, it is increasingly a consideration between safety, costs and flow.
More and more municipalities are investing in so -called ‘intelligent traffic control installations’ (IVRIs). These systems use wireless communication with vehicles, smartphones or apps from cyclists to control traffic even more efficiently.
For example, emergency services can drive on faster and a traffic light can recognize whether a truck or a bus is approaching. According to the National Data Portal road traffic, hundreds of such smart traffic lights are now active in the Netherlands and that number is growing rapidly.
There is also experimentation in our own province with smart traffic installations. Since 2021, intelligent traffic control installations have been active on the N372 near Roden and Peize. These ‘Ivri’s’ communicate via apps with approaching vehicles and adjust the green time accordingly.
According to Groningen, A partnership between province, municipalities and Rijkswaterstaat helps to improve traffic flow and to limit CO₂ emissions. Drenthe is not at the forefront, but does participate in the development towards Smarter Traffic.