The smart cameras that will eliminate traffic jams

Traffic congestion, accidents, and emergency situations on intercity roads are phenomena familiar to all of us. But what if we could identify all these in advance, prevent traffic jams, and increase road safety? Netivei Israel is leading a technological revolution aimed at making transportation smarter, all thanks to advanced video analytics.

The Proactive Management Revolution

Transportation infrastructure projects such as the construction of railway networks and public transport systems will benefit road users once completed, both in terms of traffic flow and road user safety. However, it is important to remember that these projects are long-term, requiring time and large budgets, and in the meantime, the traffic load on the roads only increases.

Netivei Israel, the largest infrastructure company in Israel, has invested many resources in recent years to integrate advanced technologies for smart traffic management, with the vision of enabling proactive traffic management. This means analyzing traffic characteristics and events in real-time, while adding predictive capabilities for risk situations and the formation of traffic congestion points. This will allow for addressing traffic challenges in the early stages of their occurrence, even before they impact additional sections of the road.

1. Comprehensive data collection from the field – through cameras and sensors installed along the roads.

2. Real-time insights – an advanced system that alerts to accidents or congestion before anyone notices.

3. Immediate and effective response – managing traffic flow and improving safety through automation.

Cameras and Video Analytics

The Traffic Management Department of the Operations and Maintenance Division, in collaboration with the Innovation and Strategy Division, recently completed a focused tender process for the development of advanced video analytics capabilities, which will significantly upgrade the existing capabilities of the current cameras. This capability will turn the output from a video that requires human viewing to identify unusual events, into the most diverse quantitative data.

• Traffic analysis (counting vehicles in various categories, mapping speeds on different road sections, intersection crossing times in different directions, etc.). This will enable better control and monitoring of traffic flow in real-time, with a focus on optimizing traffic at intersections. In addition, information will be collected over time and used for road planning and infrastructure improvements.
• Identifying potential risk situations, such as accidents, pedestrian crossings in dangerous locations, objects and hazards on the road, or drivers behaving in a manner that endangers road users. Early detection of faults or potential dangers will allow relevant authorities to react in real-time quickly and prevent accidents. This also includes mapping required infrastructure improvements on the road to enhance safety.

Itan Zilberstein, Head of the Traffic Control Technologies Department at Netivei Israel's Operations and Maintenance Division, said: "Netivei Israel operates hundreds of cameras along intercity roads. These cameras, which are primarily designed for visual observation, are considered 'dumb' because they do not provide quantitative analytical data beyond the live image. Therefore, traffic management needs to sample each of the cameras to identify unusual events and extract any data from the cameras."

Netivei Israel is transitioning to advanced smart camera technology that will automatically analyze, in real-time (without the need for human viewing and analysis), all traffic events and characteristics occurring within the field of view of all the cameras connected to this system. In doing so, it will be possible to:

1. Identify unusual traffic events – such as accidents, hazards on the road, defective road infrastructure, vehicles driving in a way that endangers traffic, and provide immediate alerts with their occurrence (within just a few seconds) to the relevant authorities.

2. Analyze traffic characteristics – such as counting and classifying vehicles, measuring travel times and delays, identifying typical travel patterns, and providing early alerts for the beginning of traffic congestion on roads.

3. Enable accurate traffic and transportation planning – the collected data will allow for continuous improvement of road infrastructure and its adaptation to changing needs.

Challenges on the Road to the Revolution

Revital Levy, Head of the Engineering R&D Department at the Innovation and Corporate Responsibility Division, notes that: "Implementing the technology involves unique obstacles: high driving speeds, extreme weather conditions, and detecting obscured objects such as vehicles behind trucks. But computer vision, using deep neural networks (DNN), solves these challenges. The system learns to identify patterns, just as a child learns to recognize new objects, and develops high-accuracy recognition capabilities."

How Does It Work?

Using millions of tagged images, the learning system gradually understands what an accident is, what a dangerous object is, and what constitutes abnormal traffic flow. The more the system is exposed to information, the more it improves, and eventually operates faster and more efficiently than a human operator.

Implementation on the Ground – One Step Ahead

After a complex tender process, the VisionInsight system from the Israeli company ITC, in collaboration with the "Shikun & Binui" group, was chosen. The system will be integrated into roads in the coming months, leading to a significant change in traffic management in Israel and representing a major step toward a future of smarter and safer transportation for all road users.

The Future is Already Here

"Video analytics is not just technology, it is a tool that changes lives. The upcoming traffic management revolution is expected to make our roads safer and more efficient. These systems can collect vast amounts of data over time while maintaining strict privacy for road users, enabling relevant authorities to respond quickly to changes in traffic flow to improve traffic efficiency and also plan better transportation infrastructure. Every trip will be safer, and every stop in traffic will be shorter. The future is already here, and it looks better than ever," concludes Levy.

In collaboration with Netivei Israel.