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."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New technology and economics at ITS World Congress 2011
    January 19, 2012
    ITS America prepares for the 18th World Congress on ITS and 2011 Annual Meeting, 16-20 October 2011, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida. In the final moments of the 2008 ITS World Congress in New York City, organisers and planning committee members quietly celebrated the conclusion of another extremely successful event for the ITS industry. In spite of the economic climate at the time, the 2008 World Congress was well attended by delegates from 66 countries and yielded impressive results than
  • US city upgrades traffic management with McCain
    May 7, 2014
    As part of a city-wide effort to modernise its infrastructure, the City of Palmdale, California has selected McCain’s Transparity TMS to update the City’s central traffic management software. Transparity TMS will replace McCain’s first-generation central software, which the City of Palmdale has been utilising since 2003.
  • Thales builds on Canadian connection for transit R&D
    June 20, 2016
    The Canadian province of Ontario is continuing to benefit from its ongoing investment in transit R&D. David Crawford looks at the impact of new investment. Developing the next generation of urban rail signalling solutions worldwide, with the emphasis on transit security and efficiency, is the goal of a recently-created business partnership between the government of the Canadian province of Ontario and Thales Canada. The wholly-owned subsidiary of the France-HQ'd global defence, aerospace and transportation
  • Hard shoulder running aids uniform traffic flow and safer driving
    January 23, 2012
    David Crawford detects a market for European experience. Well-established now in at least three European countries, Hard Shoulder Running (HSR) on motorways is exciting growing interest in the US. A November 2010 Report to Congress by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), on the Efficient Use of Highway Capacity, notes the role of HSR in the European-style Active Traffic Management (ATM) strategies now being recommended for implementation in the US where, until recently, they were virtually unknown.