When the Kansas City Streetcar launches in early May, a state-of-the-art computerized traffic system will also kick in to make sure everything flows smoothly.
Reggie Chandra, founder and CEO of Rhythm in Lenexa, Kansas, said the computer system is called InSync.
"The System of 21 cameras along the route feed the computer information about cars, how long they have been waiting at the intersection, the streetcar location and whether or not the pedestrian button has been activated. The computer will then analyze that information and determine the best option to keep traffic moving through the intersection," said Chandra.
The streetcar does not get an automatic green light at intersections. However, the computer program does give the streetcar a higher priority because more people are on board. Sometimes motorists will be stopped and sometimes the streetcar will have to stop. The traffic light control system is designed to keep all traffic flowing.
Chandra explained that in the 30 cities where they operate across the United States and Canada, accidents at intersections with the end sync system dropped by at least 20 percent.
Sawyer Breslow, an engineer at Rhythm, configured the KC Streetcar to the InSync traffic program.
"We had some of our engineers writing on the streetcar while working on configurations," said Breslow.
The cameras and InSync computers mounted at each intersection along the streetcar routes are well protected with military-grade encryption.
The InSync traffic flow system is part of Kansas City's smart city initiative.
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Cynthia Newsome can be reached at cynthia.newsome@kshb.com.
