The system helped reduce travel time through those intersections by an average of 25 percent, according to studies conducted by Traffic21, which turned the system on and off at different times of day. “It’s not because you’re driving faster but because you’re stopping less and not stopping for as long,” Smith says. The system now includes 50 lights, running from Penn Avenue at Bakery Square into Oakland on Baum Boulevard. Smith subsequently spun off a company, Rapid Flow Technologies, from CMU and licensed the technology he and his research group created, dubbed “Surtrac.” The company is receiving part of a recent $10.9 million federal grant to add another 150 lights to the system, including some Downtown.