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Smarter traffic lights to solve urban congestion woes

Written by Evan Powell

Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Technology has been employed to make driving and cars safer and yet faster, to catch drivers in the act of speeding or running red lights, and even to help us find our way to new places, but so far not much has been done to solve the single biggest problem of driving in urban areas: traffic. An American company, Aldis Corporation, may have something that could change that and greatly reduce the amount of time we spend waiting for the lights to go green. The technology uses a system based around a single, 360-degree fish-eye camera and some sophisticated software that hopes to be able to convert traffic signals from simple robotic automatons into thinking, problem-solving traffic directors.

By combining its visual input with a complex series of decision-making algorithms, the system arrives at what it figures is the best possible order for the traffic lights at any given intersection.
For instance, if the camera detects a single vehicle travelling toward a red light but no traffic is travelling the other direction, it will change the signal in time to keep the car from having to stop.

Smooth flowing traffic is faster, more efficient
But the system might be even more useful under heavy traffic loads, where it could allow a single heavy-traffic street to maintain flow while also letting cross-street traffic circulate in the gaps.

By keeping as much traffic as possible flowing smoothly and minimizing unnecessary stops and waits at traffic signals, the system could significantly reduce emissions and fuel use - not to mention commute times.

The company hasn’t mentioned how it will work foot traffic into the system, but since the camera can see 200 metres in every direction and include whatever it sees into its’ calculations, it is likely that a solution could be implemented.

Road safety could be improved
The safety implications are even more promising. If the system sees a car approaching an intersection and calculates that it will not stop in time for the red light, it can hold the cross traffic on red for a few moments longer to prevent a collision. A long view of this type of technology includes a future of automated cars running in an automated traffic system.

It sounds like science fiction, but Honda envisioned a very similar scenario two years ago that relied on the use of GPS-enabled side-mirror mounted ‘car cams’ feeding a central computer system with up-to-the-minute traffic data of an entire city’s streets. However, the program is still in the experimental phase hasn’t yet been employed on a wide-scale basis.

Clearflow system takes a different approach
More recently, in April of this year, Microsoft introduced its Clearflow traffic-avoidance service, another take on a similar theme. Though it operates on what might be seen as a more opportunistic individualist perspective than from the cooperative group angle taken by Honda.

By combining traffic data with GPS systems, the system will be available free to motorists in 72 U.S. cities via the company’s Live! Service. It provides real-time alternate route information for highways, major thoroughfares and side streets. One of the key benefits to the system, according to Microsoft, is that it can let a driver know when it’s more efficient to simply stay on a backed-up highway than to try the surface streets because so many other driver have already attempted the same thing, congesting the surface roads.

The system is incredibly complex, effectively creating machines that can quickly acquire all traffic data for a city on an ongoing basis, learn how to best negotiate the traffic flow, and then direct the end-user accordingly. Because of this essential complexity, Microsoft fears it will have a hard time convincing motorists of the benefit of the system, hindering its adoption.

Australia still lags behind other countries when it comes to real-time traffic reports and congestion management technology, something that allows even lowly GPS devices to help drivers navigate around congested streets. For the moment we’ll just have to rely on helicopter bound traffic reporters.

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