Cookeville’s AI-powered vision cameras helped reduce traffic flow problems around the new Willow Avenue shopping complex.
Public Works Director Mary Beth Elrod said the city’s new traffic director worked throughout the two-week openings to rebuild the traffic flow in that part of the Willow Avenue corridor. The city currently maintains 78 intersections citywide.
“The AI cameras are looking at the intersection and when a car passes through these virtual loops in the camera, the Currux system counts the vehicle,” Elrod said. “It also determines is it a passenger vehicle or is it a larger commercial vehicle like a tractor-trailer.”
Elrod said the city required the developer of the Willows to install the technology as part of the new signal at the Greengate intersection.
“As we gather data for the Willows’ actual trips generated, we will be updating that data with real data instead of their projected data,” Elrod said. “So we are constantly honing it and looking at it and watching it during all of the seasons 24/7 a day of the counts.”
Traffic flow previously relied on wired loops buried under the pavement to detect vehicles. Elrod said these traditional sensors frequently malfunction due to utility repairs or road repaving projects, leading the city to transition toward the new Currux Vision system.
The city began exploring synchronization and optimization options in 2023 to reduce congestion without relying on large-scale road widening projects.
“We are trying to budget some of these each year until we build out some of our larger corridors with these optimized systems and we’re able to get an entire corridor synced and talking to each other through AI and through communications so we can get a wave of traffic through a corridor,” Elrod said. “So if you have someone get on a corridor, get off I-40 at Willow, we hope with this latest purchase to be able to have Currux cameras at every intersection all the way to Broad Street to help with that entire corridor from I-40 to Broad Street.”
T-DOT will also install the system at the Henley Drive intersection on Jefferson Avenue.
Elrod said the cameras provide continuous data collection, whereas previous methods only offered a one-week to two-week snapshot of traffic patterns. This constant stream allows the city to develop specific timing schedules for school rushes, lunch hours, and weekend church traffic.
“AI is only as smart as you train it, so we’re having to hone those loops,” Elrod said. “So you tell AI in the loop what the virtual loop is, and so we have to make sure and we’re constantly checking to make sure it’s triggering those signals properly.”
Elrod said the city spent a year testing two different manufacturers to ensure the selected software was user-friendly and compatible with existing infrastructure. While the AI helps optimize flow, Elrod said the city is still working with the state on physical improvements, such as a dedicated right-turn lane from Willow Avenue onto Interstate Drive.
“There’s many more, this is just the first step,” Elrod said.
