The AP-7 is one of Spain’s busiest roads. It’s also among the country’s most dangerous.
Last year, there were 700 accidents with victims recorded on the highway, which stretches along the Mediterranean from Valencia to the border with France, a record for the last decade.
One of the most shocking accidents occurred last March when dense fog caused a 40-car pileup, killing one man and injuring several others.
During the day, the AP-7 can come to a standstill with bumper-to-bumper traffic — especially around Barcelona, and especially on holidays.
Now, traffic officials in Catalonia are trying to make the highway safer and less congested with artificial intelligence. The new system will take in real-time data from the roads — such as the number of cars, whether there’s an accident, and the weather — and choose a sensible speed limit.
If there’s a backup in one spot due to a wreck or sudden fog, AI technology will lower the speed limit for cars approaching the area in hopes of preventing a sudden jam.
“So, these cars are delayed to arrive in the section that problems,” said Òscar Llatje, the coordinator of safety, traffic and mobility at the Catalan Traffic Service.
There will still be a top speed limit, but Llatje said officials plan to eventually do away with permanent signs and replace them with the changing digital signs.
Traffic safety experts have been pushing for a system like this — called variable speed limits — for decades.
“They’ve been found to lead to reductions in road deaths,” said Ellen Townsend, policy director of the European Transport Safety Council, a nongovernmental organization in Brussels dedicated to reducing road deaths across Europe.
“The main evidence that’s been reviewed is from the UK, from the M25, which is quite a well-known road, because it’s the one that goes around London,” she said. “That was introduced in 1995, and there was a 15% drop in injury crashes.”
What’s different about the new Catalonian system is the introduction of artificial intelligence. Examples of that can be found outside of Europe.
Last year, Tennessee rolled out a speed limit program similar to what’s being tested in Spain, where AI monitors road conditions and changes speeds in real time to reduce congestion and prevent wrecks along the I-24 “Smart Corridor,” a popular, 24-mile portion of Interstate 24.
According to Diego Manzanas Lopez, a research scientist at Vanderbilt University, which partnered with the state on the project, the system has reduced crashes by 14%. And that’s not all.
“It actually significantly decreases traffic congestion,” he said. “It helps with fuel consumption, and it also helps reduce accidents. So, I think it’s great that Spain is implementing that. And I hope that is the future for most roads in Spain.”
That future is still a ways away, though. According to Catalonian officials, it will take about two years to fully implement the new artificial intelligence system.