Technology detects potential for traffic congestion
Technology ( 4 )
TOKYO —
Honda Motor Co has announced the successful development of the world’s first technology to detect the potential for traffic congestion and determine whether the driving pattern of the vehicle is likely to create traffic jams. Honda said it developed this technology because the acceleration and deceleration behavior of one vehicle influences the traffic pattern of trailing vehicles and can trigger the traffic congestion.
In conjunction with the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo, Honda conducted experimental testing of a system utilizing the technology to detect the potential for traffic congestion. The test results demonstrated that the system helped increase the average speed by approximately 23% and improved fuel efficiency by approximately 8% of trailing vehicles.
With the goal to bring this technology to market, Honda will begin the first public-road testing of the technology in Italy and Indonesia in May and July of this year, respectively, to verify the effectiveness of the technology in minimizing vehicle congestion.
Rather than providing information to help the driver avoid existing congestion based on current traffic information, the system monitors the acceleration and deceleration patterns of the vehicle to determine whether the driver’s driving pattern is likely to create traffic congestion. Based on this determination, the system provides the driver with appropriate information, including a color-coded display through the on-board terminal, to encourage smooth driving which will help alleviate the intensity of acceleration and deceleration by trailing vehicles, thereby helping to prevent or minimize the occurrence of vehicle congestion.
Moreover, the positive effect on minimizing congestion and fuel efficiency improvement can be further increased by connecting the on-board terminals to cloud servers to make the driver aware of and in sync with the driving patterns of vehicles ahead by activating the ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control)*3 system at the right time to maintain a constant distance between vehicles at the most appropriate interval.
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2
proxy
There are far easier ways to solve the same problem in Japan; better planning and fewer and better timed lights.
One form of government spends untold mountains of money to build a bypass only to see the local government allow a string of little shops to be built along the bypass defeating the whole concept of the bypass. A new suburb, shopping mall, or concert hall is built and none of the access roads are expanded and the change in traffic is not seriously considered. One looks down a long stretch of road and all of the lights change from green to red at the same time. How many times does it happen when you are driving that you must stop at every set of lights sometimes lights that are only 20 meters apart? The system creates congestion.
The same people who enforce the law, i.e. the police, should not set the law. The police set up and control all of the traffic lights and can through central computers change them at will. I know of some local roads on which if one drives 15 km over the posted speed limit all the lights will be green when approached but if one drives at the posted limit all of the lights will be red. The police then, having created an incentive for people to speed set of speed traps on the roads.
Also minimum speed laws on toll roads should be implemented. There is nothing more frustrating and dangerous due to other frustrated drivers than getting stuck behind somebody driving 40 km/h on a toll road posted as 70 or 80 km/h.
And I suspect the police are in cahoots with the traffic light manufacturers to put up a certain number of new lights every year regardless of traffic patterns. Why many new lights have been put up in recent years in many rural locations on quite lonely roads that never had them before when the number of vehicles on the roads is declining is a real mystery.
1
TumbleDry
After years and years and years and years of research, with some of the greatest minds ever, working the 3x8, the results are there, folks. Too many people on the roads. Everybody leaving at same time.
0
VicMOsaka
Proxy Taking in to account the amount of traffic, small side streets, pedestrians, I would say that the traffic light system is not so bad at all. I have been driving in Japan for more than 20 years. Having all the traffic lights turning green way down the length of a long road gives you a decent run instead of having to stop at lights all the time. I believe that lights controlled by traffic flow would make things worse here. The main reason Police change traffic light phasing is because of speeding down long straight roads as people try to get through all the green lights before they turn red. I know. I am guilty of doing the same. If police who enforce the traffic laws shouldn't control light phasing, then who should ? As to putting up more traffic in rural areas while car numbers are declining makes sense as it is in the places like Hokkaido where traffic is less, that some of the worse accidents occur. Where I live, our streets are quite narrow and the intersection was not light controlled. There were accidents all the time. When they installed traffic lights, the accidents stopped. The phasing is very short so it is no problem.
I also drive in my home country New Zealand. It is less stressful driving in Japan. Japan has a good system.
1
proxy
@VicMOsaka The lights should be staggered not all changing at the same time so cars going with the rush hour at speed can drive for kilometers without stopping. My point was that they don't phase the lights in Japan, they all change at the same time.
If you have been here 20 years you must remember the Kotsu Kansei Gijutsu scandal.
The biggest problem with letting the police run the system is that they are police officers not statisticians. The system would work better if they hired people with degrees in fluid dynamics, civil engineering or mathematics. There is a lot of complex mathematics involved in traffic flow that is beyond me and all the cops in Japan. The people sitting in the traffic control centers with cameras on every road with fingers on the buttons to change any light at any time should not be cops, they should be engineers. I went on a tour of the Fukuoka prefecture traffic control center once and all of the people working there were cops who were much more interesting in controlling traffic than letting it flow.
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