Increasing traffic congestion on city roads, wastage of fuel at traffic lights and loss of precious lives due to emergency services like Ambulance, Fire Brigade stuck in traffic jam have lead to team of 2^nd year Electronics & Communication Engineering students of Chandigarh University, Gharuan come-up with a Smart Traffic Control System for Smart Cities of India. “According to statistics 20 percent of the patients needing emergency treatment die on their way to hospitals every year because of traffic delays and uncooperative motorists in India,” said Raj Aryan one of the team member who, along with Kashish Jangid and Himanshu Soni, have developed an unique intelligent sensor-based smart traffic control system which will not only help to give passage to emergency services so that precious human lives could be saved but will also help in generating power that will be used to run the traffic lights hence saving electricity.

Based upon installation of Piezoelectric Sensors which have the ability to convert pressure into electric voltage on all the crossings where the vehicles stops due to traffic lights, the smart traffic control system will calculate the length of traffic queue on all the sides of the crossing. The sensor will send the signals to the microcontroller installed in managing the traffic lights to go green for the timing based upon the traffic queue which means the signal will go green for variable time to different section of traffic depending upon the queue length. This will also help in the changing the automatic signal timings in peak and non-peak hours. The interesting part of the proposed system is that the piezoelectric sensor will also generate power from the weight of the vehicles which stops at the traffic signals and hence the generated power will be used to provide electricity to the traffic signals at the crossing and there would be no requirement of electric connections to them.

Yet another feature of the smart and intelligent traffic control system would that it will sense the presence of emergency service vehicles like Ambulance, Fire Brigade through RF Transmitter and Receiver installed in the system. Using the alarm sound detection system generated by the emergency vehicle, the RF Receiver will send signals to the microcontroller of the traffic lights to go green while keeping the other signals red and hence prioritizing the traffic flow at the crossing from the side where there is an emergency vehicle stuck in the jam due to traffic lights. The RF Receiver can detect the sound frequency within the distance of 100 to 200 meters. This can help in saving many precious human lives as emergency services vehicles will get priority at traffic signals.

The students of Chandigarh University have already filed a patent for the smart traffic control system with the patent granting agency of India. 

About Chandigarh University

Chandigarh University is a NAAC A+ Grade University and an autonomous educational institution approved by UGC and is located near Chandigarh in the state of Punjab. It is the youngest university in India and the only private university in Punjab to be honored with A+ Grade by NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council). CU offers more than 109 UG and PG programs in the field of engineering, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, journalism, animation, hotel management, commerce and others. It has been awarded as The University with Best Placements by WCRC.