

Can we move toward electronic roads on the cheap? - stretchwithme

What if traffic lights used wi-fi or radio to broadcast their decisions?  Could cars use that data to arrive at lights just in time to catch the green?  Could they talk back and actually vote on when the light changes?<p>Could cars use GPS, suspension sensors and wi-fi to report where the potholes are?<p>There's work being done on enabling cars to travel closer together and reduce the amount of drag that most cars have to overcome, but isn't there lower risk, low hanging fruit to pick?<p>Can you think of any creative ways to deploy the great technologies we have now to make concrete more efficient?
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jmcentire
People adjust very quickly and easily. Much of the inefficiency the commenters
on this thread observe are either the result of intent or indifference. We've
had the technology for years to make for "better" traffic flow. Studies have
been done which demonstrate local maxima which aren't adopted by
municipalities. The main barriers are archaic ideas based on felt truths and
the profit motive.

Many city planners believe that stopping traffic frequently makes the city
safer. This isn't true, of course. But, it seems true and it's easy to
believe. If a city timed major traffic ways properly, it's been shown that
accidents are reduced. But, facts are so inconvenient. Rather, lights are
timed poorly which causes greater pollution and tension. The drivers, seeking
a more optimal path, start taking side roads and neighbors complain. So, the
city, rather than improving the efficiency of their roads, make the
neighborhood streets less attractive by adding stop signs and speed bumps.

The other factor is the profit motive. Frustrated drivers who have limited
options for side streets become increasingly likely to slip through changing
lights or speed between signals. The result is, of course, greater revenue for
the city. You'll note, this is also a completely unsafe situation. Ideally,
our municipalities are there to make things better, easier, safer. Here,
they're not -- yet, no one seems to complain.

What you can do, rather than introducing yet another optimization agent
(humans do this pretty well), is organize a social movement to make your
streets safer through applying demonstratively better solutions with existing
technology. For instance, why do demand lights initiate an immediate change
rather than simply queuing the change durning the next light cycle? Negligence
and miserliness.

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colonelxc
I'm not a big fan of the traffic light wifi idea. For starters, I think people
trying to time the lights just right trying to hit a changing light at 35mph
are crazy and are just asking to be hit by someone trying to beat a red.

Moreover, in places where the lights are influenced by the cars around, I
think it's usually pretty easy to tell if a light is going to change soon.

But, I do think we will start seeing a lot more tech in the automotive future.
I think it's the newest prius that has an auto-sensing cruise control, to
adjust the speed to the car in front of you. I've been wanting that for years.
Also, I think it's the first step in integrating autonomous drivers on the
road.

I've also heard about work on a "train" like vehicle that other cars could
attach to and be dragged along. Idea is that it'd be more efficient, plus the
drivers would get to relax on their commute.

Like you mentioned about communicating where potholes are, I think all cars
should be alerted to emergency personnel on the side of the road well before
they reach them. I think maybe some radar detectors do something like this,
maybe as a side effect. Something built into GPS would be awesome though.

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noss
Related: Why are we not installing an over-head electric rail at freeways that
tall trucks and buses could use? I understand that at high speeds the kind of
system used by Trolley-buses the poles would constantly fall off or the wire
themselves would wear and tear.

But what if one had sturdy beams instead of wires that could guide the
trolley-poles, and indirectly the driver to stay in-lane. More like a third-
rail, that is 4-5m above the road.

These trucks and buses could then have a weaker combustion engine to use off
electricity, but perform the majority of the trip, on the freeway, on
electricity.

I understand that not all countries have a near mix of 50% hydro and 50%
nuclear electric power to make this decrease pollution.

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stretchwithme
or how about one that work using magnetism that doesn't require constant
contact? Or perhaps buses could have a robotic system to find the wire and a
battery for when they cant't.

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LeBlanc
You don't need to send the data to cars for wi-fi equipped traffic lights to
be useful.

I can imagine hooking up a traffic light with both a wi-fi device and cameras
to measure traffic flow. Traffic light A could communicate with traffic light
B to let each one know how much traffic was on the way to the other light, so
that it could adjust its programming. If you did this on a large scale, I
would expect it to reduce traffic by a lot.

Of course, I don't know if the reduction in traffic would be greater than the
cost of equipping all traffic lights with wi-fi devices and cameras.

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stretchwithme
It would be useful for lights to communicate with each other.

But if you can measure traffic flow passing through one intersection, can't
you measure traffic approaching another?

It seems that the way to start implementing would be to improve nodes first.
Connecting them seems a bigger, more political job.

