Artificial intelligence is conquering American roads

The road network between Fort Worth and Dallas is one of the most congested in the United States. A tangle of highways, interchanges, and urban arteries accommodates millions of vehicles, transforming mobility into a daily challenge.

The two Texan cities, about thirty miles apart, effectively form a single megalopolis, with a series of densely populated residential hubs. One of these is Arlington, home to the AT&T Stadium, one of the venues that recently hosted matches of the FIFA Club World Cup.

The Texan city embraced the nine matches held at the AT&T Stadium, including a semifinal, with great enthusiasm, but the local administration had to rely on Artificial Intelligence to prepare for traffic levels comparable to nine Super Bowls in a few days—to avoid road network paralysis.

According to NBC 5, the Department of Public Works installed AI-powered traffic sensors at intersections capable of detecting the location, number, and flow of vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians to ensure both effective traffic management and appropriate safety standards.

Traditional traffic lights and already-operational “smart” lights—which have for years helped create continuous green-light flows on major roads—have now been enhanced with AI to analyze data and conditions with previously unimaginable speed.

The AI sensors, the manufacturer told the broadcaster, identify diverse road users, ascertain the speeds and trajectories of their vehicles, and can even detect sudden accidents or disruptions, recommending alternative paths.

An unwritten rule, well-known among Texas traffic managers, states that every minute a road incident occurs and remains on the roadway generates four minutes of traffic. This puts enormous strain on mobility and increases the chances of secondary accidents.

Thanks to the AI-integrated system, numerous data feeds can be acquired—traffic camera footage, weather, information on circulating vehicles, and updates on ongoing roadwork. Additionally, the new traffic lights can access any other infrastructure data, as well as third-party data, to make connections and detect anomalies such as a roadblock or potential slowdown.

All this information is sent to traffic control centers faster than ever before. In fact, AI doesn’t just react—it anticipates.

Pilot programs using AI for traffic management are underway in other Texas cities like Austin, and in California’s Los Angeles and San Francisco, where driverless taxis are also seeing rapid growth.

Likewise, in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina—the latter’s Department of Transportation has just announced the implementation of AI-based traffic light management software at 2,500 intersections across the state, aiming to modernize and improve traffic flow.

Even Boston, Massachusetts, has decided to invest in AI traffic management solutions to optimize the school bus service. The goal is to reduce delays in school arrival times.

A study by the Urban Transportation Research Center at the University of South Florida in Tampa revealed that the traffic light infrastructure in the Sunshine State is outdated and responsible for congestion and road safety issues.

According to the report, Florida drivers face average delays of 20.4 seconds at every intersection, compared to a national average of 18.1 seconds. That means more wasted time and fuel.

Residents often interpret these delays with a seemingly laid-back attitude—“It’s Florida time”—but they also show great responsiveness when it comes to urban mobility. It’s no coincidence that Tampa is one of the U.S. areas where the most highways and intersections are being built to manage increasing traffic volumes, with companies like Lane (part of the Webuild Group) working on several critical junctions.

In light of the university research findings, the administration of St. Petersburg, a tourist suburb of Tampa, announced to broadcaster Fox 13 the approval of a project to install AI-powered traffic lights at 15 priority intersections.

In the world of major infrastructure projects, artificial intelligence is an essential tool, not just for improving performance but also for reducing construction times, increasing safety levels, and boosting site efficiency and productivity.

On construction sites managed by the Webuild Group in Paris, where the Grand Paris Express (the new parisien metro network connecting the communes of Île-de-France) is under construction, AI has been introduced to better protect worker safety. This is achieved through the installation of cameras that record all potentially risky situations, photographing them, reporting the anomaly, and simultaneously populating a database that allows the AI to improve daily.

Also related to safety, in Melbourne, at the North East Link construction sites (a system of 6.5-kilometer twin three-lane tunnels), similar technologies have been applied to the operation of construction vehicles such as excavators, trucks, and concrete mixers. Here too, the Webuild Group has installed micro-cameras that act as “eyes” capable of analyzing the machines’ range of action in real-time, issuing an alarm when this range interferes with human presence.