(WBBM NEWRADIO) — Certain motorists in north suburban Lake County will soon have a leg up on fellow motorists when they pull up to dozens of red traffic signals: They'll know how much time is left on the red light they're sitting at.
Officials say drivers in newer model Audi vehicles will soon be told in real time and on their instrument panel how many seconds they'll have to wait before their red traffic signal is going to turn green.
The vehicles are all models of Audis since 2019 and some models since 2017.
Lake County's Principal Engineer Justin Effinger acknowledges a lot of motorists are looking down, many times at their phones during red lights.
"Studies have shown that, if people know how long they have until they're going to get a green, they'll be more patient to wait for that green rather than try and do something else."
Effinger says the dashboard red light countdown for Audi vehicles will be available at 100 traffic signals in Lake County this fall, likely in October. They'll be at intersections such as Deerfield Road east and west of Route 43 in the Highland Park area and Rollins Road at Route 83.
The system is expected to grow to more than 500 traffic signals within six months of that.
"Let's say you get into their threshold for distance to the traffic signal, it could start counting down from 90 seconds, could start counting down from 50 seconds. It all depends when you arrive at the traffic signal."
And that's just one technology on the horizon, Effinger says.
"Something they are working at as far as the future is a speed limit advisory. Not only what a speed limit is on the roadway, but what is the speed would you need to travel in order to get green lights along your corridor."
Effinger hopes some American automakers start working on those technologies as well.
