Technology to Route Traffic and avoid Congestion
June 27th, 2008 Posted in highway, technology
Vermont may not be quite ready for these elements, but I am glad someone is looking into the technology piece of the solution. We have agreed that new highways may not be the best answer to our congestion problems.
Feds to help world’s largest traffic tech test
In what is billed as the largest such experiment in the world, a consortium of academics, tech firms and government agencies will use upward of 1,000 drivers from the Bay Area to the Sierras to create a traffic monitoring system virtually overnight.
And all the drivers have to do is bring along new mobile phones as they cruise around for several months expected to begin in September or October.
The phones use global-positioning features to transmit each vehicle’s location and speed, and then receive organized data telling drivers of upcoming bottlenecks and alternate routes and even alternatives to driving where available.
The $12.4 million test, expected to happen later this summer, was announced Wednesday at the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza with the help of Paul Brubaker, administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration.
The administration’s new SafeTrip-21 initiative will kick in $2.9 million to the test as its first grant in the nation.
The test will also check the effectiveness of a collision-avoidance system that uses Wi-Fi technology to help cars sense the proximity of other vehicles.
