Skip to main content

Priority is on transit for Lyt and Octa in Orange County

Advanced traffic signal prioritisation tech is designed to improve daily commutes
By David Arminas September 30, 2024 Read time: 2 mins
Octa buses will have signal priority (© David Tonelson | Dreamstime.com)

Lyt is to work with California's Orange County Transportation Authority (Octa) and Fullerton City on a one-year pilot programme and implementation of its transit priority solution Lyt.transit.

Lyt is serving as the primary contractor for transit priority solutions under an agreement with Arcadis. It is hoped that Lyt.transit will help solve congestion in the Harbor Boulevard corridor, nearly 38km long.

Formerly called Spadra Road, it runs north-south through the counties of Los Angeles and Orange, passing through some of the most densely-populated areas in the region, and carries about 8% of the county's bus riders.

The solution is designed to move buses through congested intersections faster and more safely. Buses speak directly to networked traffic signals through Lyt's open-architecture cloud platform. This results in a consistent and reliable green light for every bus transit vehicle in the network, the firm says.

Lyt’s machine learning models and artificial intelligence technology knows when to prioritise and activate a traffic signal - taking broader traffic patterns into account, not just the one signal that traffic is heading toward.

"As the Southern California region continues to thrive, it is essential to implement advanced traffic signal prioritiation technology to improve the daily commutes of Orange County residents,” said Tim Menard, chief executive and founder of Lyt. “Our cutting-edge AI-powered technology ensures smoother traffic flow, reduces congestion and enhances safety on today’s roads."

Gabriel Murillo, ITS and connected mobility market leader at Arcadis, says: “By harnessing the power of advanced AI and machine learning, Lyt.transit is set to elevate transit efficiency, enhance safety and contribute to a more sustainable transportation network for the residents and businesses of Orange County."

Related Content

  • January 13, 2023
    Signal prioritisation as silver bullet
    We can’t keep building roads to solve congestion. But help is available: transit signal prioritisation can easily reduce traffic and bring back riders to mass transit, says Bobby Lee of Lyt
  • October 29, 2014
    Opticom gives priority to Memphis Transit’s buses
    A new traffic signal priority system is helping bus passengers in Memphis reach their destinations on time.
  • March 15, 2012
    Traffic signal priority initiatives aid better bus travel
    David Crawford investigates traffic signal priority initiatives developing for better bus travel on the US Pacific Coast Transit patronage rises by an average of 35% along commuter corridors equipped with bus rapid transit (BRT) systems, according to the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA). BRT as defined as bus transit enhanced with ITS systems for better services, is winning new passengers attracted by opportunity to avoid increasing fuel costs and traffic congestion.
  • September 12, 2014
    Orange County to manage traffic with trial interoperable CCTV
    Interoperable CCTV can provide early warning of problems and help improve traffic management and incident response as Morteza Fahrtash and Carlos Ortiz explain. California’s transportation system is one of the state’s defining features and Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) strives to improving mobility across the state through the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the network of highway, freeways, toll roads and expressways.