Talking Traffic

New Traffic Forecast Model in the Works: Bristol University is developing a new traffic forecast model. This is something that is decidedly non-trivial and depends upond good data. To quote from the article:

However, if you are using inductance loops that are close enough together, you can identify the driving patterns of individual vehicles and, with such data from the millions of vehicles on the motorway, you can build up really quite detailed models of driver behaviour.

The fundamental problem isn’t the modelling, or even the application of the model, it’s gathering enough real time data and crunching it within a useful amount of time. The first, gathering the data, is expensive and hardware intensive; the second still has some computing issues to overcome. Go Bristol, I say, because if they can make it work, my job becomes easier.

Conventional Traffic Signal Timing is So Last Century: Professor Helbing at ETH Zurich proposes a new type of compensative signal timing. The proposed system could work wonders, but only if government and drivers would buy in.

Don’t Shoot and Drive: Man is caught shooting out video detection cameras.

No responses yet

Nov 15 2007

Rising Metal Theft

Published by Bill Ruhsam under news, signals

There was a news article yesterday about wire theft causing a signal outage in Washington state.

This comes on top of continuing news that copper piping is being stolen from construction sites (both before and after installation).

Like petty theft, muggings, and liquor store robberies, I wonder if the benefit-cost ratio of these activities is greater than 1.0 (for the thieves)?

No responses yet

Aug 18 2007

Traffic Tidbits: 18 August 2007

Published by Bill Ruhsam under politics, bridge, bicycle, tidbits, signals

Five Cities awarded Close to $900M: Five american cities have been awarded funds as a part of the US federal government’s Urban Partnership Program. New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, and Miami have been awarded varying amounts of funds.
Minneapolis is Respecting the Disaster Site: The site of the I-35W bridge collapse is being restricted from view as much as possible, in respect for the dead.
Traffic Light of Death!: Any blog entry that pops into my feedreader with this title gets a look-see. The topic may not be wholly fascinating, but the prose that accompanies it definitely is.
US DOT Not Committed to Bicycles: Malcomxpark reports that Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters does not feel that bicycles are transportation. He links to another blog with transcripts of interviews with secretary Peters. You won’t find me being the administration’s defender all that frequently, however Mary Peters seems to be a levelheaded middle-of-the-road Transportation Secretary. The policies being criticized are rampant throughout the country, not only with this administration. Americans love their cars and trucks and have not been culturally raised to respect the bicycle. This attitude is reflected at every level of the transportation infrastructure process, from policy to planning to construction, including funding, which is the linchpin that everything turns on. To have a bicycle-friendly nation, we need to work with everyone, not just rail at the administration.
German Prognostication: German Autobahn traffic experts want to predict traffic jams a day in advance. Sounds cool, I hope they manage it.