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Ann Arbor plays home to the University of Michigan, and with the football games, Kid Rock concerts, and daily commuters comes traffic, and lots of it. On the average weekday, the 125,000-person town swells to hold 200,000 people, most of whom travel in by personal car. The city is exploring buses, commuter rail, and carpool options to clear up its roads, but knows it can't drive the car out of its home state anytime soon. So it turned to tech to manage its streets.
Intelligent traffic systems have been adjusting traffic lights and signs to smooth out congestion in real time for more than three decades, all over the world. More than 100 cities, including London, Santiago, and Toronto, use the same car-corralling program as Ann Arbor.
Now, that tech is getting smarter—and it's winning the battle. New numbers from Siemens, which co-owns the Ann Arbor program with UK company Imtech, show the city's more advanced software puts a serious dent in local traffic.
Cities program your standard traffic light by observing traffic patterns for a few hours, extrapolating what local vehicles need, and then letting lights do their thing for years, even decades. More advanced systems will be able to sense if a vehicle is stopped, and turn the light green to help it along. The most advanced systems—like Ann Arbor's—will know how many vehicles are stopped, in which lane, and how many vehicles are coming down the pike.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 06 2017, @05:35AM (4 children)
"sensor loops in the road, which never seem to sense motorcyclists or verify pedestrian traffic."
Motorcycles - just treat that stubborn stop light as a stop sign. It doesn't know you're there, so come to a complete stop, look all directions, then proceed when it is safe to do so. If a cop stops you, explain the situation, and you're unlikely to get a ticket, unless he's a complete ass. (I've driven some cars that the sensors didn't seem to notice, believe it or not.)
Pedestrian? As the pedestrian, you look both ways, and proceed with caution, or you die. Depending on tech to tell you that it's safe to cross the road is a sure way to die. As a driver, pedestrians always have the right of way, so you stop, no debate.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday March 06 2017, @06:53AM
No truer words ever said.
The one that gets me, both as driver and pedestrian, is that if a pedestrian *has* tripped the light, the light should keep the red on for a couple of seconds longer while gating the pedestrian first... that way the pedestrian is in the road - and in plain view - before the motorists are gated on. Telling them both to enter the intersection simultaneously leads to deadly surprises. There are often light poles, switch boxes, and other obstructions at intersections which conceal a pedestrian, and the motorist turning right often gets a surprise encounter with a pedestrian that wasn't there a second ago.
As a driver, I pay special attention during right turns if those pedestrian signals are blinking, as that usually indicates active pedestrian activity. I do not believe those things should be automatic, as I do not want it to become routine and a "wolf call and no wolf" kind of thing. A blinking one should mean that someone actively tripped it and is presently in the intersection. Not "might be".... "IS".
In the event of more intelligent camera supervised intersections, use the camera to verify pedestrians are cleared before telling the cars all is OK.
So many people just aren't paying attention anymore either while driving, or walking!
I have had a lot more close calls with humans than cats... Haven't nailed any yet, but I have had several too close for comfort kinda things. None were anybody's real fault - rather we both thought things were clear and made simultaneous decisions.
Honestly, most cats pay more attention before crossing the road.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 06 2017, @01:04PM (1 child)
Depending on tech to tell you that it's safe to cross the road is a sure way to die.
The right tech is grade separation, its very difficult to get run over when crossing the street between the parking structure and the mini-skyscraper at my employer because there's a nice skywalk connecting floor 3 of both buildings. The local hospital has the same strategy. It does make things weird for the business because people are wandering in on the 3rd floor or ground floor or who knows what.
I suspect every American skywalk it within 500 miles of the Canadian border. Maybe the tornados and hurricanes down south make it too dangerous, I donno. You'd think being out of the sun would be strongly appealing. Its definitely a nordic ancestry far northern tier thing.
Tunnels are a college campus thing. West of the mississippi we get too much rain, many feet per year, so drainage would be an issue, unless the tunnel is literally only 5 feet between adjacent buildings or one street width apart.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday March 07 2017, @10:04AM
I suspect every American skywalk it within 500 miles of the Canadian border.
Daytona Beach, FL has several with more on the way. That said, unless you want to go out of your way to cross at one, you have to cross streets infested with tourist traffic. I find that, at least in the beachside area, it is easier and safer to cross in the middle of blocks rather than at intersections, even (or especially) if there are traffic lights. You only have vehicles coming at you from two directions to watch out for as opposed to at least four directions at intersections.
(Score: 1) by DavePolaschek on Monday March 06 2017, @05:37PM
The sensor at the red light nearest my house does not sense motorcycles or Smart cars unless they're perfectly placed (I ponder going to mark the intersection with white paint some evening, but that would be unlawful). Luckily, MN has a law which allows you to proceed through the light after waiting long enough for it to have run through a complete cycle (though the light won't cycle at all if it doesn't detect you - chicken, meet egg).
Or if you're in a hurry, get off, walk over to the pole, and press the button for the crosswalk, which also gets cars and cycles a green light.