Researchers Apply P2P Principles To Car Traffic 111
alphadogg writes to tell us that lessons learned from peer-to-peer networks are being applied to traffic systems in order to prevent jams. "Their Autonet plan would center around ad hoc networks of vehicles and roadside monitoring posts supported by 802.11 technology (the prototype uses 11b). The vehicles would essentially be the 'clients' in such a system and feature graphical user interfaces to pass along information to drivers. They're building the system to be able to handle data on thousands of traffic incidents and road conditions."
Re:How many times does this need to be said??!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Put the damn money into comprehensive public transportation!!
But the auto companies -- you know, the ones who just asked for a big bailout and got some of it -- spent millions and millions of dollars convincing you, the unwitting public, that public transportation is a bad -- a waste of government resources!
And now you know why there's no good public transportation in most big U.S. cities, save a few.
Full disclosure: I have -- in the past -- worked for two of the Detroit Three automakers.
Re:How many times does this need to be said??!! (Score:3, Interesting)
This routing information being handed to drivers who manually take action is the first step into complete and total automation. With automation, transportation costs will plummet and it's not entirely impossible to envision adequate transportation being listed as a "human right" along side adequate shelter and food (meaning not everyone will have it, but society will go to great lengths to provide it). This is a fantastic development, and I'm very hopeful about the future of automated driving - this takes us one step closer. And anyone who is skeptical should read the writeup Brad Templeton has done on his website, this is not just a sci-fi thing. This will bring real societal progress and is entirely obtainable.
Patience padawan.
Re:Affects highways, but that's it (Score:3, Interesting)
As a side effect, all of the pedestrians went to the corners to cross, because it was easier to wait a short time to get a light compared to waiting to jaywalk (since jaywalking only works if there's a gap in traffic).
Then, when I came home, the fact that we have many, many traffic lights that last well over a minute just irritated me to no end. Now I see tons of intersections where traffic is waiting for a green, yet there's no cross traffic because the lights are too long and the entire system cascades.
Re:Affects highways, but that's it (Score:4, Interesting)
In my city, we've got a couple streets where you can hit all greens, saving yourself about 5 minutes for the entire stretch, if you speed about 7-9 mph. You get half yellows and the rest are green. So anyone who tries it thinks "shit, this really is the best way to drive down this stretch," which just leads to a different kind of moron. Yet, if the lights were set up the *other* direction, traffic could be regulated so that there was no advantage to going over the speed limit -- you'd simply be approaching a red light anyway, and someone going exactly 25 or 35 would hit the light right after it changes. The only people slowed would be speeders.
There's a lot that cities can do to alleviate traffic problems, but it's not "popular" or particularly showy, so almost none of them do. Fiddling with traffic lights doesn't win elections.
Bring the roundabouts to the US (Score:2, Interesting)
A lot of the unnecessary traffic delays at poorly regulated traffic lights could be completely circumvented by getting rid of lights and settings up roundabouts. Even through traffic slows down, it does not stop, and it automatically regulates itself.
Roundabout takes very little time to get used to, and it presents a consistent interface to drivers. First time I saw them in Italy many years ago during a business trip, I instantly fell in love with them. Since then I've seen them all over Europe. I think most drivers in my area (Silicon Valley) would love them, too, as everyone seems to be rather impatient (which is quite understandable with the unending traffic jams and poor timing of traffic lights contributing to the jams).
Re:Is this new? (Score:3, Interesting)
They have spoken to physicists, but perhaps not listened. I can tell you car traffic, network traffic, and Nash equilibrium are all related here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess_paradox [wikipedia.org]
Re:Affects highways, but that's it (Score:4, Interesting)
Funny you say that. There was an earlier comment earlier that also said a similar thing. I live in Calgary, AB, and downtown along 4th ave the lights are all synched for about 10 blocks or so, but only if you speed. The limit is 50, but you have to go about 60 or you start hitting yellows.
Why is this? Can there really be that many Traffic Controllers that screwed up on the calculation? Is it so that police can sit on a corner at night and catch speeders? I don't get it...