Traffic lights in Seattle might become smarter and more responsive this July. The Seattle Department of Transportation is tapping technology company Siemens — at a cost of $651,000 —for software that will allow traffic lights to adapt to heavier traffic, the Seattle Times reports. The system, to be named Concert, will input traffic data from the Washington State Department of Transportation and respond by prolonging green lights in key areas. One goal is to smooth traffic after baseball games, concerts or festivals.
This morning Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told a shareholder’s meeting that company's growth has made it the fastest ever in reaching $100 billion in annual sales, GeekWire reports. Bezos said Amazon will open more stores in the future, and add new features to Prime accounts. As the Seattle Times reports, he has a rather lofty aim with Prime: “Our goal with Amazon Prime, make no mistake, is to make sure that if you are not a Prime member, you are being irresponsible.”
The meeting was protested by a women’s advocacy group who flew a plane overhead with the words “Shareholders to Amazon: #DumpTrump.” They would like to see Amazon stop selling Donald Trump’s products. Others protested Amazon’s selling of foi gras on their website.
A Chinese real-estate company plans to build a 43-story residential building near the Space Needle on the site of what’s now a parking lot. The building would house 400 one- and two-bedroom apartments. Vanke China hopes to begin construction on the $200 million project early in 2017. The land for the project is owned by a California based company called Laconia Development. Lacona’s senior vice president Bob Kagan told the Seattle Times that Vanke was attracted to Seattle’s young demographics, and liked that Amazon was three blocks away.
