A Path to Smarter Roads

How often do you have a day where your routine drive to work is full of red lights? Every last intersection seems to present you with a red light, even at those where there are no waiting cars on the cross street.

Occasionally there is a distracted driver in front who doesn't go for a while when the light turns green. Which results in the next light turning red on you too. Then it just cascades from there and the trip takes far longer than normal.

Though far better than having uncontrolled intersections, the road system can be maddeningly inefficient. Traffic lights only seem to get added, never taken away because the vehicle population has steadily risen and such removal could also pose a legal liability for those jurisdictions in which they're located.

If there were an effective way to know or estimate:

• The number of cars on the road at a given time.
• Where they are going
• How fast they are traveling

Intelligent routing could occur. It seems the mobile phone is the way to go to provide that information. They offer much faster adoption rates and shorter technology life cycles than anything built into cars. Should enough motorists use such a technology we could likely make a material dent in congested local roads in a short amount of time.

GPS + Hybrid Vehicle Network = Fuel Savings

Automotive News reports the engineering firm Ricardo is teaming up with several other companies to incorporate GPS and hybrid vehicle technology in vehicles in order to reduce fuel consumption. This would be achieved by anticipating vehicle power needs for upcoming road conditions by taking into account such factors as via speed limits, traffic congestion, and traffic lights along the intended route. Figures of 5% to 24% fuel savings are mentioned. It is hoped that this technology will be tested in fleet vehicles next year in the UK.

I'm convinced this further indicates that the continuing trends of decoupling mechanical systems and overlaying different information and data will ultimately result in driverless cars.

Following up on my previous post, there’s a whole lot of development going on with infrastructure, navigation, and communication.

Clearflow launched last week. They’re using predictive algorithms to predict traffic conditions and best routes/times:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/14/microsoft-launches-new-clearflow-traffic-avoidance-system/

Then we have another story about eight radio broadcast companies coming together to form the Broadcaster Traffic Consortium to include traffic and digital maps in the HD radio spectrum. Read more here:

http://jalopnik.com/379900/hd-radio-looks-to-tackle-traffic-conundrum

Finally, we’ve got BMW’s partnership with Google to input your frequent driving destinations into your navigation system like speed dial telephone numbers in your phone:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/14/bmw-gets-in-bed-with-google-maps-for-myinfo/

The number of moves afoot to provide improved traffic and congestion information is impressive. While all this is a boon to the battle against congestion, I’d like to see more emphasis placed on reducing traffic in general by people planning their trips better, increasing flex work hours and telecommuting, and alternative modes of transportation such as rail, buses, and bicycles.