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Project Green Light: Saving You Time On The Road

To reduce traffic delays and unnecessary stops, the City has retimed or coordinated over 10% of signalized intersections.

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Traffic is not only frustrating, but creates emissions that harm our environment. In 2023, Boston was ranked 8th in the world for highest traffic delays -- we're committed to changing that. Project Green Light, a Google Research initiative, uses AI and Google Maps driving trends to model traffic patterns and make recommendations for optimizing existing traffic light plans.

How Does It Work?

Contact: Innovation and Technology
  1. Google analyzes driving trends from Google Maps and models these traffic patterns with artificial intelligence, identifying data-backed solutions for traffic congestion.
  2. Boston’s Traffic Management Center reviews these potential signal timing adjustments. Engineers implement traffic synchronization with nearby intersections or change “green time” between lights to better match demand.
  3. The outcome of traffic changes are evaluated in partnership with INRIX, Google, and the Traffic Management Center. 
  4. Drivers experience less traffic congestion, spend less time waiting for a green light, and reduce emissions during their drive.

Background From Project Green Light

Through Project Green Light, we're using AI to reduce traffic and emissions around the globe. This is just one of many examples of how Google Research is advancing science to improve lives — from lowering transportation emissions to helping communities prepare for floods and wildfires. All of this work requires deep partnerships in both the public and private sectors to provide people with the information they need to build a stronger future.
 
For many city traffic engineers, it is hard and expensive to get access to reliable data for traffic light optimization, which means that many traffic lights rely on outdated configurations. Our city partners tell us that prior to Green Light, they would try to optimize traffic lights using expensive sensors or time-consuming manual vehicle counts — and these solutions do not provide complete information needed on key parameters.
 
That's why we created Green Light, which uses AI and Google Maps driving trends to model traffic patterns and make recommendations for optimizing the existing traffic light plans. City engineers can implement these in as little as five minutes, using existing infrastructure. By optimizing not just one intersection, but coordinating across several adjacent intersections to create waves of green lights, cities can improve traffic flow and further reduce stop-and-go emissions.

We're pleased with the results we've seen so far. Early numbers indicate a potential for up to 30% reduction in stops and up to 10% reduction in emissions. The impact to a single intersection may seem small, but collectively across many cities, it makes a difference. Transportation is responsible for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution at city intersections is 29 times higher than on open roads. Half of these emissions at intersections come from traffic accelerating after stopping.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many cities are using Project Green Light?

As of April 29th, Project Green Light is live in 17 cities on four continents. Boston and Seattle are the only U.S. cities currently included in the program.

Why is Google using my data to improve traffic lights?

No user data is ever shared with the city or any other third party. Google Maps is using aggregated, anonymized driving trends to reduce stop-and-go traffic during your route and provide a better driving experience.

How does Green Light maintain drivers’ privacy?

Green Light only shares recommendations about how a city should optimize traffic light timing - for example if they should lengthen a green light by a few additional seconds. Any driving trends shared with the city are aggregated, anonymized and have gone through strict differential privacy measurements.

For more information, please visit Google Research's Green Light page.

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OUR CITY PARTNERS

OUR CITY PARTNERS
Contact: Emerging Technology
Office of Emerging Technology
Streets Cabinet
Transportation Department
Innovation and Technology Cabinet
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