MIT Researchers Fight Gridlock with Linux 75
nerdyH brings us a report about a Linux-based device being developed at MIT which aims to reduce traffic congestion as well as assist automotive research projects.
"The current focus of the project is in developing algorithms that run on top of the portal application to help drivers plot the best route at a given time. For example, the team's MyRoute project includes applications that model delays observed on road segments as statistical distributions. Various algorithms then use these to compute optimal routes for different times of the day. 'Instead of asking the shortest time or shortest distance from point A to point B, you ask what route should be taken, say, for the highest probability of getting to the airport by a certain time depending on the time selected,' says Madden."
Then only the hackers (Score:1)
The system is pointless in many areas (Score:2, Insightful)
If you fly overhead over Sacratomato on most days, you will see tendrils of red (red tail lights) spreading rapidly all over the city between 6:45am and 8:30am, until the whole city is utterly clogged. Almost nothing is passable in this city during rush hour; by 7:30, there are no alternate paths in the city that can get you out of a traffic jam if you are, say, commuting from Elk Grove to Carmichae
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No live data? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:No live data? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Real time rerouting for evacuation (Score:3, Insightful)
I wouldn't want to participate in a program that would help the Department of Fatherland Security anyway, they'll probably find some way to get unfettered access to the information.
Hmmm.... Trying to think of a rationale that might be used for why Homeland Security would have to want to look at the traffic jam data, they could say that they need the data to practice so that, if it ever happens that a disaster means that they need to evacuate a city, they could develop a system that would allow them to do wo without clogging the streets.
But actually, that would be a good us of the system; if there ever were an evacuation, it would be useful to have a system to reroute around the in
Re:No live data? (Score:5, Informative)
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e.g.
http://shop.carphonewarehouse.com/pay-monthly/nokia/n82-titanium/o2/n3018/ [carphonewarehouse.com]
Re:No live data? (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.xmradio.com/navtraffic/market_coverage.xmc [xmradio.com]
The methodology for gathering the info varies, but in Houston they use the electronic tolltags, even on roads that are not tolled. By measuring the time between stations, it calculates the average speed of cars on that segment.
The results are downloaded into the navigation system in my car, and depicted as green, yellow, or red bars adjacent to the route. However, I've never been able to determine if the GPS routing uses the speed information to calculate the fastest route, as I don't live in an area for which speed information is available. A couple of years ago, it was reported on Slashdot [slashdot.org] that Baltimore was going to test monitoring of traffic speeds using (presumably generic) cellphones. This article [ntoctalks.com], although somewhat dated, reports initial results and also notes that the state of Virginia is doing the same thing.
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Click on a segment of Beltway 8 and you get a Roadway speed and travel time popup.
Within that box is a link to a live speed chart that shows current speed versus yearly average.
Re:No live data? (Score:4, Interesting)
I lost my cellphone this weekend, and I asked my provider: "Well, can't you track it with the built in GPS and tell me where I left it?"
Guess the answer.
So how do you get the data off if is not easily accessible by the provider?
(I entertain the possibility that they don't want to do that so I have to replace the phone)
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Worse, Assisted GPS just kinda figures out the last few cell towers you talked to and gets a fix with a huge radius.
Generally a phone that is on and is left out in the open can be traced to some degree, but if your phone company told you 'its in a 3 block radius of this spot' then its not
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Even saying: "It is in your house, dummy" would help.
Here is the the thing: it is smart enough to tell me about movie theater times to a one block radius as it picks the closest t
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Seattle [wa.gov], for example, this is already available for local freeways on the web and in various
other [trafficgauge.com] formats. Data is also collected for smaller roads, but is currently not made available to the public. That will change.
The problem I can see with the MIT solution (centrally calculated 'optimum' routes) is that the availability of better routes might be made available based upon a drivers willingness to pay. Much like the 'Lexus Lanes'
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but in a car this is negligible. IF the data is anonymized
I MIGHT let somebody install a free GPS tracker in my car.
As for GPS-on-a-phone? My phone uses power mostly when
involved in a call. One SMS a minute is a lot of power.
Will I be compensated for the data transmitted by MY phone
using MY power, or am I expected to just charge the thing
more often and pay for the service in addition? I am not
sure I like this "smartphone" concept...
here's an idea (Score:3, Interesting)
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Although I probably wouldn't have put red in all caps.
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Or in some cases, straddle both the lanes that are red.
I too have had the crappy night job and been stuck at many red lights that 'did not sense' my car. All you have to do is figure out the way to get it to detect you, or multiple cars if thats what its looking for.
In most states there are also exceptions that allow you to run a malfunctioning red light, might want to check up on those to see if these lights you're having problems with are considered malfunct
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I'm not sure how the American system works, but over here there's double-white lines at each set of lights. If you stop behind the lines like you're supposed to, your car is right over the sensor and the light will go green. If you stop halfway over the line (like almost everyone does) the sensor can't see you any more and you have to wait until there's another car behind you. The nighttime cycle stays green for the major road and red for everyone else until it detects a car stoppe
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A better use of cell phones for traffic jam mitigation would be to have every one of the electronic gadgets that regulates traffic (like those "press this to get a walk signal" buttons, too) have a little sign with a number on it to call when it doesn't work...
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The other issue I have is light timing in general. I swear to god in so
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As an overnight worker I can not tell you how many times I've had to sit at a red light twice because the sensor didn't want to trigger for just one car - and I know the one time I decide to go on a red arrow there is going to be a cop right around the corner.
So call the appropriate office of your local government and complain until they adjust the sensitivity of the induction loop(s) at each problem intersection. In my experience as a transportation-oriented bicyclist (very subject to bad sensor settin
I wrote about this idea last year it's about time (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I wrote about this idea last year it's about ti (Score:1)
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Linux just a buzzword now? (Score:1, Insightful)
Recently I've been noticing this trend of news about "stuff" doing "things" they were designed to do and the punch line being - it runs Linux.
Now... I know its a time honored tradition at
Also... If it works - it works. Does my GPS or stereo run on Linux? Who cares? It works.
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I care. You are clearly not geek or nerd. You don't care HOW your gadgets work. What are you doing on slashdot if you aren't interested in what is preented here? (It's not like "You are not slashdotter, go away", i'm really interested why do you post on slashdot). Some readers of slashdot LIKE what is presented here, but you say: it doesn't interest ME, so it's not interesting. And TFA is clearly on topic with slashdot (
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You are clearly not geek or nerd. You don't care HOW your gadgets work. What are you doing on slashdot if you aren't interested in what is preented here?
Now... The preferred response to such a statement+question would be to waive my /. ID number in your face and say something like "You don't have the permission to address me yet, young one."
But I guess I never did pick that up, so..
Usually, when I want to see how gadget works I get a screwdriver.
In this case - I read the (T)FA.
Which explains that it uses GPS and WiFi technology in combination with SQL-based application and some fine algorithms.
Only reasons they used Linux is - driver support and the fact t
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The article explicitly mentions that there was an advantage to the switch, that's why the mention. I disagree that the /. headline should have had it, because the headline just sounds funny this way. Like it's some epic battle that MIT researchers are waging
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And its not very explicit if its mentioned in only two lines of, somewhere towards the bottom of the text.
Seeing Linux in the headline makes one wonder - "If they didn't switch from TinyOS, what would happen? Would the story ever make it to
Or is BSD and TinyOs just doomed by not having enough Xs in the name?
You know... like detergents.
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I think it unlikely that such a story (with BSD) would make it to /. unless, of course, there's an equivalent to LinuxDevices.com which has news on as many new gadgets that use Linux as possible. Is there a website that promotes devices that use either of those systems? It's likely that whoever submitted the story just took the headline off the article. The article naturally had Linux in its name because that's why it's listed on LinuxDevices.com, it's the fact that it runs Linux that's interesting to them.
Orange box (Score:2)
density, GPS units, and stupid traffic lights (Score:5, Interesting)
Density. There are simply too many cars for the roads. Public transit is partly to blame; it's gotten better and more convenient (the Charlie Card was a major improvement- people can board busses *really* fast now, and I'm seeing fewer and fewer here-is-what-I-found-in-my-change-jar types), but the T still has miles to go in terms of reliability, routes, and just plain cleanliness.
GPS units (and Yahoo/Mapquest/Google maps) which go for the shortest/fastest route, not the *best* route or route with the most 'bandwidth'. For example, it's technically shorter to cut *through* longwood medical area, but it's much faster to go around it- even though there are more traffic lights, they're all in your favor.
Stupid traffic lights. There's a major intersection near me where, despite the complexity of the intersection (five streets), it's not wired with pads to tell how many cars are where. One car on a tiny side-street fucks up traffic on roads which are classified as arterial (y'know, the ones you can't park on during a snow emergency.) Boston and surrounding cities have hundreds of such intersections- but you'll only find the "smart" ones where rich people live.
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Won't help my commute much ... (Score:2)
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Frankly, it's time for cities to put together some sort of urban & suburban planning--and those WILL involve more lanes of highway, additional roadways, publ
R speed! (Score:1)
R is a velocity measure, defined as a reasonable speed of travel that is consistent with health, mental wellbeing and not being more than say five minutes late. It is therefore clearly an almost infinitely variable figure according to circumstances, since the first two factors vary not only with speed taken as an absolute, but also with awareness of the third factor. Unless handled with tranquility this equation can result in considerable stress, ulcers and even death.
This won't help in the long term. (Score:2)
In most ways, increasing road capacity by scheduling/information isn't much different than increasing capacity by adding a lane. It's great for a while, but then we see traffic again. More capacity invites more cars. Maximizing "ef
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Making it more convenient/cheaper to drive a car will always result in more cars on the road, not fewer.
Having more people in an area will result in more cars on the road. In many areas not struggling with their own success, and in which public transportation availability is very poor and limited, making it convenient and cheaper to drive a car just makes it more convenient/cheaper to live life. So, the SF Bay Area won't see the end of their woes with this, but you might have better
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See Manhattan Island for counterargument. Once you get a high enough population density -- especially with mixed zoning -- cars just aren't needed. People walk to the grocery store [or eat out]. They take mass transit to/fro work. Once you get that critical mass, the number of cars per capita, and perhaps even the aggregate number of cars, can decrease.
Making changes to society to encourage auto alternatives will have a greater influence
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See Manhattan Island for counterargument. Once you get a high enough population density -- especially with mixed zoning -- cars just aren't needed. People walk to the grocery store [or eat out]. They take mass transit to/fro work. Once you get that critical mass, the number of cars per capita, and perhaps even the aggregate number of cars, can decrease.
Making changes to society to encourage auto alternatives will have a greater influence in, say, Greensboro than in SF Bay where they've already got fairly good transit.
The point about Manhattan is true. However, in Greensboro, you can easily find an average one-bedroom apartment for about $500/mo. In places like San Francisco (and presumably Manhattan), you can find a slightly-small one-bedroom apartment for closer to $1500/mo. (Like mine. Actually, I could have gone a little more suburban and less public-transit-y/more car-y for $1300ish, but I didn't.) I'm not sure that most people in Greensboro would appreciate that sort of price differential very much, Public Transpo
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Once you get a high enough population density -- especially with mixed zoning -- cars just aren't needed. People walk to the grocery store [or eat out]. They take mass transit to/fro work. Once you get that critical mass, the number of cars per capita, and perhaps even the aggregate number of cars, can decrease.
People whose only experience with large cities consists of old cities, like New York, which reached "high enough population density" more than 100 years ago don't understand the nature of the problem. The only reason New York is hospitable to mass transit is that it was built essentially as a pedestrian city. In the 19th and 18th centuries, neighborhoods required shopping within walking distance, as keeping a horse within the city was something that "regular folks" couldn't really afford. Fast forward to t
Consider then (Score:2)
That's what I mean about making changes to society. You don't have to forc
Traffic reports on local radio (Score:2)
(1) Local radio says "there's a jam at such-and-such".
(2) I adjust my route in order to go directly through such-and-such.
(3) I get a clear run because by the time I get there the original problem has cleared, and everybody else has avoided the place having heard about it on the radio.
Hmmmm (Score:2)
I dunna think this is gonna work.
Traffic speed is less a factor of number of cars on a stretch of road, more of number of cars trying to make a decision. (change lanes, exit, enter)
Think automated traffic cameras at merge areas, ticket people who get out of line, race up and cut back in line. Automated systems fire directed sound when you're less th
Neat idea but... (Score:2, Insightful)
I could see it becoming a handy addition to any Wifi setup for a mobile device.
Viewsat receivers? (Score:1)
I ran some calculation on my OS X Box (Score:1)
Gridlock vs Grimlock (Score:1)
How is this actually Linux related? (Score:1)
I feel it really takes away from the merits of the researchers that have developed the extensive applications o