Traffic Shockwave

It’s official. Humans are terrible at driving in traffic. A recent study by researchers from several Japanese universities observed a phenomenon referred to as a “traffic shockwave” in a live traffic simulation. They setup a 230 meter circular track and had 22 vehicles drive around in a circle at 30 km/h (around 19 mph). At first, everything is free flowing and then, out of nowhere, “pockets” of congestion begin to appear. It’s amazing to watch (see Youtube video below).

The recent study lends credence to Dear GF’s theory that cars should be computer controlled. This would effectively remove the human element and lapses in judgment that cause “traffic shockwaves.” However, I think it’s unrealistic to think that humans would give up their control of driving altogether, but I do think that a hybrid system would eventually work.

The system would work very similarly to how driving works in the 2004 movie I, Robot. When you leave your house, the vehicle would be manually controlled. When approaching large metropolitan freeways (interstates and highways, etc.) an autopilot would activate and take you to your destination exit. Once reached, you would once again regain manual control of your vehicle and travel to your final destination.

For those that wish to rebel, there would still be the option of manually driving on the freeways…for a charge and it would be restricted to one or two lanes (I can’t imagine that anyone would want to drive manually on the freeways).

You can imagine the benefits of this type of system. Pollution and fuel reduction (the vehicle could be magnetically propelled) come to mind and of course there are the time savings by reducing traffic congestion. A 30 minute trip to work wouldn’t be so bad if you could watch a show, read a book, or play a game while the vehicle drove itself to your designated exit. It could be the perfect marriage between public transportation and driving. Combining the best of both worlds.

But let’s be honest, at this point that’s just wishful thinking and fantasy, but I’m sure that there are ways to increase the efficiency of our automotive transportation system.

Most of my commute to and from work takes me through the worst traffic in the Portland metro area, so I’ve recently become fascinated with traffic analysis; the hows and whys of how traffic congestion occurs and how it can be solved. So much so that I’ve added a set of books The Road More Traveled: Why the Congestion Crisis Matters More Than You THink, and What We Can Do About It, Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion, and 21st Century Highways: Innovative Solutions to America’s Transportation Needs to my Amazon wishlist to eventually read.

Coming from an IT world, where static values are usually frowned upon, I’m frustrated by the fact that freeways, bridges, etc. are still built with this mentality without giving a thought to the dynamic nature of traffic.

For example, Interstate 5 (I5) in North Portland has three lanes going north and three (sometimes it cuts down to two) going south. As people commute to downtown Portland in the morning, I5 south is a complete mess and in the afternoon, I5 north (as people commute home to Southwest Washington) is a complete mess.

One can easily imagine a dynamic system of traffic distribution that “takes away” lanes from an unused part of the highway and “gives them” to the part that needs it. Now, I understand that comparing packets and routers to vehicles and physical infrastructure is like comparing apples to oranges, but let me explain where I got this idea from.

Last summer, my family and I went to Vancouver BC where we did the normal tourist things. While coming back from Stanley Park, I drove us over the Lions’ Gate Bridge and I noticed that traffic on the bridge can be dynamically adjusted by a series of lights (red, green, and yellow). In fact, this actually happened while I was going across the bridge. When the lane that I was driving in started flashing yellow, I had to do a double-take. After a few seconds of confusion, it made total sense. My lane was being repurposed to allow cars to come the other way.

It would be interesting if something like this is being considered for the replacement of the I5 Interstate Bridge (the total cost is in the billions of dollars) that is scheduled to take place in 2010. Until then, I’ll just have to keep my sanity by listening to podcasts and music while going to and fro.