Smart car feature connects drivers to traffic lights across Las Vegas Valley

The seconds ticked down as I sat behind the wheel of a gray Audi A4, waiting on one of the many red lights, itching to cruise the Strip.

With five seconds left, the countdown clock disappeared from my dashboard and forced me to look up at the traffic signal.

Four, three, two, one … green.

Right on cue, I hit the gas and continued down one of the world’s famous boulevards, now fully equipped to “tell” my smart car how much time remained until my next green light.

“It’s an evolving technology,” said Kiel Ova, chief marketing officer with Traffic Technology Services, the auto software company that developed the link that allows Audi to communicate with traffic signals operated by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.

Audi last week showed off a line of vehicles capable of counting down the seconds drivers have to wait at a red light across the Las Vegas Valley, making it the first region in the U.S. to employ vehicle-to-infrastructure technology.

Audi started developing the idea in 2006, and partnered several years ago with Traffic Technology Services to make it a reality. Now, Audi’s Q7, A4 and Allroad models for 2017 are equipped with vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, but it’s only available through a subscription service ranging in price from $15 to $27 per month.

The Road Warrior joined several other reporters and bloggers last week to test the technology along the Strip, and it was pretty impressive.

When approaching a red light, a clock appears on the dashboard display to count down the seconds until the signal is expected to turn green. The vehicles are equipped with a communications system that takes in real-time data collected from the RTC’s traffic management center, which oversees roughly 1,300 signal intersections across Clark County.

The technology doesn’t yet synch with every signal in Las Vegas, either because it’s an older piece of equipment, the signal is hard to read or the RTC changed the timing, Ova said.

RTC General Manager Tina Quigley said the countdown clock is more than just a fancy toy for wealthy drivers. It’s part of a larger effort to introduce autonomous and connected vehicles to Las Vegas.

“This is just a baby step toward making drivers feel more comfortable in their vehicles,” Quigley said.

In the meantime, Audi is working with about 10 other cities to deploy the system over the next year, though company officials declined to say where.

“My impression is that everybody likes it after they try it,” Ova said. “But if the consumer says ‘so what,’ then this isn’t going to be something that’s going to survive.”

ROUNDABOUT RAGE

A couple of readers from Henderson wrote the Road Warrior to express concern about roundabouts under construction in their respective neighborhoods.

Dorothy said that she’s upset about the roundabout at Newport Drive and Racetrack Road, which allows for only one lane of traffic. The configuration “makes traffic very slow and dangerous,” she wrote in an email.

Nearby, Marcia said she has trouble seeing the roundabout at this same intersection, mostly because it’s the same color as the road pavement.

“Judging by the tire tracks going across it, I’m not the only one who has trouble seeing it come up, especially in the bright sun,” Marcia wrote.

Even though the road is open, construction isn’t complete on this roundabout, Henderson city spokeswoman Kim Becker said. When the road striping is completed on Racetrack Road, the roundabout will have multiple lanes. Additionally, the roundabout should have been repaved by now, making it much more clear to drivers.

“While drivers are required to slow down through the roundabout, it operates much more efficiently than the all-way stop, where everyone had to come to a full stop,” Becker said.

MELLOW YELLOW

Paul from Las Vegas wanted to know why some left-turn signals are equipped with flashing yellow arrows, while others are not.

“Why aren’t there more of these?” Paul inquired. “Better still, why don’t all the signals have flashing yellow lights?”

Placement of the flashing yellow largely depends on how the intersection is configured, Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said. For example, an intersection with dual left-turn lanes would never have a flashing yellow arrow.

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