Technological innovation is accelerating. Several industries have seen widespread adoption of solutions that focus on:
- Improving efficiency
- Maintaining business continuity
- Allowing users to accomplish more
While other sectors are embracing ingenuity at a breakneck pace, the traffic industry has faltered. Whether it’s a systemic or localized problem, I think we, as contributors to this industry, have relied on traditional practices and dated solutions that impose unnecessary barriers in our work. Working closely with our customers to help them maximize the benefits of the traffic technology available today, I’ve gotten insight into the problems my fellow traffic engineers are facing, as well as the broader challenges within our industry. One of the most common challenges? Data.
Is data a problem?
With the exception of the traditional signal retiming studies, there was a genuine void of data related to the performance of our networks. As investments into sensor and IoT technology grow, the challenge has shifted away from not having enough data, to actually having too much data. Is that even possible? Yes.
We’re inundated by heaps of information, requiring us to dig for insights. It’s complicated, time consuming, and produces even more work for teams that, in some cases, are already stretched thin with limited resources.
How can we use data efficiently?
Working more efficiently using the wealth of data now available to us means adopting new technology that fit the needs of traffic engineers, but still deliver the positive change our communities, families, and citizens expect.
There has to be a shift towards a new set of tools that empower traffic engineers to focus on solutions, not finding problems. Simply using new technology isn’t the answer, especially when engineers must learn and adapt to these new tools. We’re looking for solutions that are not only easy to use, but that we actually like to use because they deliver value, without overcomplicating the process to get there.
With pressure to deliver faster results, time spent sifting through data is no longer a viable option for most traffic teams. Finding solutions that can do this heavy lifting means that traffic engineers can focus more time on addressing the issues that emerge for analyzing data available. And isn’t that what we all want to be doing? Solving problems and delivering results that make an impact on our networks.
Watch the recording on the Intersection health webinar to learn more.
