Will artificial intelligence save us from traffic jams? The new operational model announced by the government to manage traffic in Attica will utilize the capabilities of AI. Based on the plan, information collected from drones, cameras, officers on motorcycles, and traffic police on ongoing construction projects, public transport, weather conditions, traffic light failures, and accidents, will end up in a central database, to facilitate decision-making.
This will undoubtedly be useful. Anyone who has crossed the center of Athens during rush hour, anyone who travels up Akadimias Street or down Panepistimiou Street and has seen a lane of traffic used by stopped cars with their alarms on, hopes that this live information about the state of the roads will lead to immediate interventions to unblock them from such obstacles.
Of course, “temporary” car stops are not the root of the problem. Kifissos Avenue, which has become a synonym for traffic congestion in the Greek capital, and where bottlenecks reappeared on Monday as the summer season winds down, has no parked cars. The main cause of traffic in the Attica basin is the huge number of cars that roam the streets every day to serve necessary activities, and these measures will not reduce their number.
