Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

sl8

(13,584 posts)
Sat Feb 22, 2020, 08:21 AM Feb 2020

Mathematicians have solved traffic jams, and they're begging cities to listen

From https://www.fastcompany.com/90455739/mathematicians-have-solved-traffic-jams-and-theyre-begging-cities-to-listen

Mathematicians have solved traffic jams, and they’re begging cities to listen

BY ARIANNE COHEN
1 MINUTE READ

Most traffic jams are unnecessary, and this deeply irks mathematicians who specialize in traffic flow. They reserve particular vitriol for local transport engineers. “They do not have competencies in the field of system-related increases in traffic performance,” says Alexander Krylatov, a mathematics professor at St. Petersburg University. “If engineers manage to achieve local improvements, after a while the flows rearrange and the same traffic jams appear in other places.” Burn!

Krylatov would like to solve urban traffic jams forever, so much so that he has coauthored a book of new math approaches to traffic and ways to implement them. (Translation: Engineers, Let Us Handle This.) Four takeaways:

• All drivers need to be on the same navigation system. Cars can only be efficiently rerouted if instructions come from one center hub. One navigation system rerouting some drivers does not solve traffic jams.

• Parking bans. Many urban roads are too narrow and cannot be physically widened. Traffic-flow models can indicate where parking spots should be turned into lanes.


[...]

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Mathematicians have solved traffic jams, and they're begging cities to listen (Original Post) sl8 Feb 2020 OP
Navigation systems are for idiots. we can do it Feb 2020 #1
Why do you say that? apcalc Feb 2020 #2
People don't know where they are. Constantly veering across multiple lanes without looking. we can do it Feb 2020 #3
Navigation systems know where the traffic is. Lucky Luciano Feb 2020 #4
ok we can do it Feb 2020 #5
So, a navigation system would make them less well behaved? They are trying to get ahead apcalc Feb 2020 #6
The point in the OP isn't "information is bad." Igel Feb 2020 #7
No getting around traffic pacheen Feb 2020 #8

we can do it

(12,118 posts)
3. People don't know where they are. Constantly veering across multiple lanes without looking.
Sat Feb 22, 2020, 08:36 AM
Feb 2020

Your daily commute is just that.

Lucky Luciano

(11,242 posts)
4. Navigation systems know where the traffic is.
Sat Feb 22, 2020, 10:00 AM
Feb 2020

That helps to reroute if necessary. If it can’t reroute effectively, it can still estimate your traffic adjusted time of arrival. It also tells you where cops might be.

apcalc

(4,461 posts)
6. So, a navigation system would make them less well behaved? They are trying to get ahead
Sat Feb 22, 2020, 10:53 AM
Feb 2020

Without information. Information would make it worse? Makes no sense to me....

A navigation system would tell them where to go, what lane to be in, how to avoid jams....

Igel

(35,191 posts)
7. The point in the OP isn't "information is bad."
Sun Feb 23, 2020, 12:51 AM
Feb 2020

It's that if one navigation system says to do something and another says something else, the traffic won't be efficiently routed. Or there'll be two navigation systems, independently saying to do something, and it'll just funnel the congestion a different way instead of dispersing it.

I see this on the freeway sometimes in a non-tech form. Everybody has access to the same information--up ahead it's congested, lots of red taillights, but it's hard to see over the next overpass. The frontage road, however, is fairly empty where the exit is, so everybody heads for the exit. The result is a huge backup at the stop light under the next overpass, and the freeway moves faster than the surface traffic. So exiting isn't the wise move.

If a single, all-wise navigation system had access to all the drivers' information, it would route some off the freeway and keep others on the freeway, so they were moving at the same pace. It would produce equality.

Thing is about equality--nobody wants to be inferior, but being "just like everybody else" is considered oppressive. We all want to arrive first.

pacheen

(58 posts)
8. No getting around traffic
Sun Feb 23, 2020, 12:59 AM
Feb 2020

Both Waze and Google Maps route me through the worst neighborhoods in Chicago to save me a whopping 5 minutes commute time.

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Editorials & Other Articles»Mathematicians have solve...