Via Business Insider:
Canceling some car trips from just a few strategically located neighborhoods could drastically reduce gridlock and traffic jams in cities, a new study suggests.
The study, conducted amid a global trend toward urbanization, could lead to new strategies and maybe even smartphone apps to help prevent traffic congestion, the researchers said.
Points:
- “…used mobile phone information from more than 1 million users over the course of three weeks to map out where drivers were concentrated on roads.”
- “…congestion forced Americans living in metropolitan areas to spend 4.2 billion more hours traveling and purchase an additional 2.8 billion gallons of fuel, at a total cost of more than $87 billion.”
- “…certain neighborhoods in these urban areas were home to drivers that caused major congestion.”
- “…canceling just 1 percent of trips from these neighborhoods could drastically reduce travel time that was otherwise added due to congestion.”
Ponder: If these kinds of results can come from mobile phone data, can networking driverless cars create the kind of synchronization that reduces congestion?
