City tests out smart stoplight to curb reckless driving, could it work here?

Mar 08, 2023

BROSSARD, Canada — Milwaukee is not the only city trying to stop reckless driving. A city in Canada is testing out a new kind of stop light hoping to curb dangerous driving behaviors.

The city of Brossard, just outside of Montreal, is worried about how people are driving and it has the mayor there acting.

"People are not respecting speed limits, and it became an issue. Security on the road is a major issue right now," said Brossard Mayor Doreen Assaad. "We wanted to look at innovative ways to change the way we look at traffic calming measures and came across a technology that's proven itself for over a decade in Europe, and we said, 'You know what? Why not? Let's test it. See if it works here in Quebec.'"

The new smart stoplight called the education awareness reward light or EARL went up along a street outside a school. So far, the city has been testing it for about two weeks.

"We were able to determine that, on average, speed was at 40 kilometers an hour, and now the speed limit is 30. We are at an average of 29 kilometers an hour. So for us, we're looking at this with an enormous sense of optimization," said Assaad.

The stoplight is not designed to be placed where traditional traffic lights go such as an intersection. Nor is it designed to let pedestrians cross, since the light can change to green at any time. Instead, the company that designed it, Kalitec's co-owner Anthony Lapointe, considers it more like an enhanced radar speed sign with a traffic light attached to it. So the best places to put one is along metropolitan streets, parks, or near schools, any place where you want drivers to slow down and use extra caution.

"The goal here is not to stop drivers. It's really to moderate their speed," said Lapointe. "You're coming in towards the road. You're approaching a school zone. It's 15 miles an hour limit and you're approaching a little too fast, and then you see a red light up ahead. So what do you do? You lift up the foot because you think you're gonna hold to a stop. But then the red light, it gives you the green as soon as you're driving the right speed. So that's what it does."

Lapointe says the light has been working in Europe. However, he says people can still drive through a red light.

"It happens. It's been documented in Europe. Some people do. It's a minority. It's the vast, vast majority of people who will slow down to the posted limit and get that green light," said Lapointe. "But if you look at the opposite way. You've asked the vast majority of people to drive the right speed, and this is a major improvement."

TMJ4 News did reach out to the City of Milwaukee to see if this type of smart traffic light could be tested here. Alderman Spiker, chair of the Public Safety Committee, says he would be interested in trying any kind of innovative approach to stop reckless driving. However, the Department of Public Works says no new traffic technology can be tested on the roads without approval from the federal government.

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