Surtrac AI Traffic Signals

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below · 🔎 Last verified 2026-07-15

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

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Born at Carnegie Mellon: decentralised AI traffic lights that negotiate with neighbours in real time, each optimising its own intersection. In CMU's East Liberty pilot they cut travel times ~25% and idling over 40%. Around 50 Pittsburgh intersections run it today; the tech, commercialised as Surtrac, was acquired by Miovision in 2023.

Live 📅 since 2012 🤖 Uses AI

Outcome🎯 Succeeded

Evidence🏛️ Official

what does this mean?

The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →

Run byRapid Flow Technologies / Miovision (Carnegie Mellon spinout)

Scale🏙️ City-wide

Cost$20M+ (city 'Smart Spines' programme)

📊 Impact

CMU-reported East Liberty pilot (9 intersections, 2012): ~25% shorter travel times, over 40% less idling and ~21% lower emissions — research-team figures, not independently audited. Grew to ~50 intersections; the city's $20m+ 'Smart Spines' program plans ~150 more, still rolling out.

🎓 Lesson

Decentralised AI that optimises one intersection at a time scales far easier than a central control brain.

🚲 Mobility Traffic management Artificial intelligence

Sources

↗ Rapid Flow Technologies / Miovision (operator)Operator site; Rapid Flow, the CMU spinout commercialising Surtrac, was acquired by Miovision (closed Jan 2023).

↗ IEEE Spectrum (press)2016 coverage; source of the ~25%/40%/21% pilot figures and the 9-to-50 intersection scaling.

↗ CMU Metro21 – Surtrac 2.0 (research authority)Carnegie Mellon project page confirming Pittsburgh deployment, pilot results and Surtrac 2.0 upgrades.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇨🇳 City Brain · Hangzhou Two AI takes on traffic: Pittsburgh's signals negotiate locally per intersection (2012); Hangzhou runs one central all-data brain (2016). 🇧🇩 CASE Traffic Signal Automation · Dhaka Automated signals, opposite outcomes: Pittsburgh's AI lights scaled from 2012; Dhaka's sat unused as police kept waving traffic by hand. 🇹🇭 BMA AI Adaptive Traffic Signals · Bangkok Bangkok retimes 74 junctions from central CCTV (2024); Surtrac instead spreads the AI across intersections that negotiate locally (2012).

Explore the wider context

🚦 Asphalt or algorithms 🚦 Traffic management guide 🏙️ Pittsburgh city profile 🚲 Mobility projects 🤖 AI in Action 📖 Adaptive traffic signals 📖 ANPR (automatic number-plate recognition)📖 Automated speed enforcement (speed cameras)

📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Surtrac AI Traffic Signals” — Pittsburgh, United States. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/pittsburgh-surtrac/ (last verified 2026-07-15). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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