The UK city of Manchester is testing connected vehicle technology to help reduce wait times at traffic lights.

Consultancy KL Systems is using freely available data from TRL Software’s Scoot 7 software to generate in-vehicle alerts to inform drivers of the time left to the next change of lights.

The trial includes a demonstration app that helps drivers reduce wait times at traffic lights.

KL Systems, a UK intelligent transport consultancy and engineering firm, is using the data to generate in-vehicle alerts to inform drivers how long there is to go until the next change of lights. The trial is part of a wider deployment that also examines the provision of in-vehicle messages that can instantly alert drivers to hazards on the road.

Thanks to Scoot 7 data, KL Systems is able to show that live second-by-second traffic light information can be fed to vehicles without the need for additional, expensive hardware. The app tells the driver how long they have until the next change of lights and the optimal speed to drive at to reduce time spent at red lights.

Although this is not the first green-light optimal speed advisory (glosa) deployment, it is one of the few ones still active and providing real world benefits.

“Once we had created the app for displaying the information to the driver and then successfully linked it up to interpret the data that Scoot 7 was firing into the cloud, there was no need to instal any hardware, or take any down afterwards,” said George Brown, founder of KL Systems. “The open data are still being transmitted, because that’s what Scoot 7 does, and our app continues to work with them.”

He said when it came to glosa, the potential benefits were massive in terms of journey times, fuel savings and emission reductions, all of it realised by cutting down on the time spent at red lights.

“However, we’re still quite far from seeing glosa available to the general public, because we’d need to ensure people can use the system without getting distracted or it encouraging dangerous behaviour such as accelerating excessively to make a green light,” he said. “That risk could be tackled with good system designs that would only inform the driver when they need to slow down rather than speed up.”

Subu Kamal, head of product at TRL Software, added: “We’re super excited that George has been able to capitalise on our open-data philosophy by using our market-leading UTC Scoot. We strongly believe that open data drive innovation and liberate legacy-locked industries. There is no better evidence to support this view than KL Systems’ innovation, which drives down costs while providing a better end-user experience. It’s also fantastic that it is being done on the ground, in one of the UK’s biggest and most progressive cities.”

TRL’s UTC software is designed to work with any hardware in a user-friendly, easy-to-learn, cost-effective manner that supports all modes of transport, saving users up to 60% on the total cost of ownership compared with other traffic management software on the market.

“We are focused on making sure that all of our traffic software range remains best in class and that we continue to push the boundaries of innovation for our customers and, ultimately, the users of their road networks to ensure that we keep roads flowing, make them safer, reduce congestion and help to deliver on clean-air targets,” said Kamal.