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Light Traffic

senseable.mit.edu

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Re: Light Traffic

#11

Post by zten »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #6
w0de0 wrote: post #3

What about pedestrians? For me, a future in which vehicles have more control of our public spaces is worse than the present, no matter the efficiency of the arrangement. Many American cities are notorious for being designed for the automobile, not the human. Let's not double down. More Ramblas!

It is kind of funny because pedestrian crossings already kind of work like this in China. The car will never ever stop for you, rather, it will adjust its speed and swerve slightly to avoid a collision (if expected, if unexpected, then its a totally different game). Likewise, the pedestrian is expected to move in a consistent direction and adjust their speed to avoid being in the way of a car. The result is that car…

Oddly, this is a cyclist behavior that is very widely admonished as being pedestrian-hostile.

Re: Light Traffic

#12

Post by philipodonnell »

zhoujianfu wrote: post #7

What would people give the odds we achieve a world of autonomous flying drone transport for local travel before a world of autonomous self-driving cars? It seems right now like we’re really close with self-driving cars but objectively flying ones would be a lot better: Shorter distances to travel (point to point), easier to implement collision avoidance, faster, no need for this crazy infrastructure we build/maintain…

I believe the failure modes are a bigger concern for flight-based vehicles.

Re: Light Traffic

#14

Post by rcarmo »

There's been a marked tendency to replace intersections with roundabouts and shared spaces (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space) in many places, including the outskirts of Lisbon (as well as a few legendary mazes in Britain).

There was even a BBC report on the latter (which I can't find right now, as usual, only a follow-up: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33303031).

Drawing a (admittedly inaccurate) parallel with shared spaces (which are harder to navigate by sensory deprived humans than standard intersections), I'd say roundabouts (which preserve crossings) would be a more sensible short-term approach overall -- especially considering the remaining human drivers.

Full disclosure: I don't drive anymore. Gave it up decades ago because I prefer to do something useful with my commute times, and resort to public transportation or Uber whenever possible, which (ironically) allows me to arrive earlier to meetings than most of my colleagues (who need to hunt down a parking space).

Re: Light Traffic

#15

Post by natemurthy »

This looks like an awesome project, and I hope this receives significant attention from city planners. I imagine as cars become more connected, we'll have better interfaces for integrating mobile traffic sensors with stationary traffic sensors for optimal management of vehicle flow along congested streets. But I do worry about the pace at which city planners adopt such technology at a time when local government budgets are tight.

Re: Light Traffic

#16

Post by ColanR »

rcarmo wrote: post #14

There's been a marked tendency to replace intersections with roundabouts and shared spaces ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space ) in many places, including the outskirts of Lisbon (as well as a few legendary mazes in Britain). There was even a BBC report on the latter (which I can't find right now, as usual, only a follow-up: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33303031 ). Drawing a (admittedly inaccurate) parallel wi…

re shared spaces, from the wikipedia:

> Hans Monderman and others have suggested that, by creating a greater sense of uncertainty and making it unclear who has priority, drivers will reduce their speed, in turn reducing the dominance of vehicles, reducing road casualty rates, and improving safety for other road users.

clearly, Hans Monderman has never driven in Mumbai, India.

Re: Light Traffic

#17

Post by IndrekR »

This is a good video example of how manufacturing works in lean factories. By reducing or avoiding inventories, fetching from temporary warehouses and machining stops (traffic lights here) you can often increase the production rate significantly.

Re: Light Traffic

#20

Post by avip »

rcarmo wrote: post #14

There's been a marked tendency to replace intersections with roundabouts and shared spaces ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space ) in many places, including the outskirts of Lisbon (as well as a few legendary mazes in Britain). There was even a BBC report on the latter (which I can't find right now, as usual, only a follow-up: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33303031 ). Drawing a (admittedly inaccurate) parallel wi…

Roundabout throughput drops when traffic load increases. They are useful (and great) for low volume traffic/suburbs.
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