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Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

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Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#61

Post by caconym_ »

blincoln wrote: post #27
ken wrote: post #20

This is pretty cool! One thing that bothers me about every traffic simulation I've ever seen, though: all of the vehicles and pedestrians here seem to be obeying the law. That's just not realistic -- especially on Mercer, which is blocked (both directions) every few minutes in rush hour by some jerk trying to make an illegal turn onto a packed street. I'd say the main causes of traffic blockages that I encounter duri…

I agree with you. However, this may be obvious, but some of that could be due to people trying to follow Google Maps, Waze, or other similar navigation system directions where the routes are generated based on what other users have done. I drove in downtown Seattle rush "hour" traffic for the first time in almost a year earlier this week, and Maps was giving me all kinds of dangerous, traffic-jam-causing directions.…

"Maps apps" consistently give me crazy directions in Seattle, in particular things like trying to turn left onto a busy road from a side street when one block over there's an arterial with a light. I really think the prevalence of crazy directions and Uber/Lyft drivers blindly following them must be hurting traffic flow in aggregate.

Not so much actions that break the law, but rather actions that are just pointless and stupid.

Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#62

Post by Tempest1981 »

ken wrote: post #21
BelleOfTheBall wrote: post #15

While I'm not overly optimistic about his goal of getting solutions from the game to be enacted in real life Seattle, it's a really admirable idea and an impressive execution to boot. I'm wondering if, with a big enough budget and a team of skilled devs like Dustin here, the local government could create more refined simulations to tackle these planning issues. Or would that inevitably run into the problem mentioned…

> Project Mission: 'People are local experts on the small slice of the city they interact with daily -- the one left turn lane that always backs up or a certain set of poorly timed walk signals' 100% of the intersections I see that get backed up are backed up because someone blocks the box. Can we get more enforcement for that? They don't even need a patrol car. Just have an officer stand at the corner of Mercer and…

> $1000 in tickets an hour

In SF, that would be 2 tickets. A red light ticket, or carpool lane ticket, is $490.

Does Seattle have similar fines?

Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#63

Post by Tempest1981 »

dabreegster wrote: post #30
noobermin wrote: post #5

Is this is a one person show? If so bravo! It looks like there's a mirror at google though, is this like a mini-google project?

I started the project while I was working at Google, went through the open source process, and then left a short while after to work on it full-time. There's no affiliation with Google.

I'm super-curious to hear more about this, in that it's hard to imagine walking away from a significant stable money-stream like Google.

Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#64

Post by xsmasher »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #53
myself248 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a lot of fun tweaking this setting in Cities:Skylines. There's a user-written mod called Traffic Manager Presidential Edition which lets you enable some (but not all) bad behaviors. The principle one is entering an intersection that they don't have room to leave, so they're still there when the signal changes and block the cross direction. (Is this AKA blocking the box? That sounds like a regional term.) Thi…

I still don't understand the concept of "jaywalking". Is there something wrong with crossing the road in the US?

In the US, you can generally only cross at crosswalks (for sections of roads that have crosswalks,) and only when the signal is in your favor if there is a signal. Beyond that it decays into a bunch of state and local laws.

You can get a ticket in many places for crossing at the wrong spot, or agains the signals, even if you didn't inconvenience anyone.

Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#65

Post by Reedx »

ken wrote: post #21
BelleOfTheBall wrote: post #15

While I'm not overly optimistic about his goal of getting solutions from the game to be enacted in real life Seattle, it's a really admirable idea and an impressive execution to boot. I'm wondering if, with a big enough budget and a team of skilled devs like Dustin here, the local government could create more refined simulations to tackle these planning issues. Or would that inevitably run into the problem mentioned…

> Project Mission: 'People are local experts on the small slice of the city they interact with daily -- the one left turn lane that always backs up or a certain set of poorly timed walk signals' 100% of the intersections I see that get backed up are backed up because someone blocks the box. Can we get more enforcement for that? They don't even need a patrol car. Just have an officer stand at the corner of Mercer and…

This happens a lot in SF too. So frustrating.

Cars that block a lane tend to get honked at, and that seems like it should be enough to not to do it again. I made that mistake once and ever since have been vigilant about there being at least a car space available on the other side.

Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#66

Post by dabreegster »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #63
dabreegster wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started the project while I was working at Google, went through the open source process, and then left a short while after to work on it full-time. There's no affiliation with Google.

I'm super-curious to hear more about this, in that it's hard to imagine walking away from a significant stable money-stream like Google.

It's a bit more of a story to tell offline. In short, the stable money stream quickly leads to a comfortable savings, giving me time to try an experiment like this. Right now I'm motivated by technically interesting projects that might lead towards good things in the real world, and once I was in a position to realize that, there was no way I wouldn't be working on A/B St.

Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#67

Post by scarejunba »

setr wrote: post #60
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't understand the concept of "jaywalking". Is there something wrong with crossing the road in the US?

yes cars have dedicated lanes for driving bikes have dedicated lanes for biking legs have dedicated lanes for walking do NOT cross the lanes

Interestingly, the UK doesn't have these laws and has lower deaths per passenger mile.

Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#68

Post by blincoln »

nkrisc wrote: post #45
blincoln wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. However, this may be obvious, but some of that could be due to people trying to follow Google Maps, Waze, or other similar navigation system directions where the routes are generated based on what other users have done. I drove in downtown Seattle rush "hour" traffic for the first time in almost a year earlier this week, and Maps was giving me all kinds of dangerous, traffic-jam-causing directions.…

> it's not just drivers ignoring the law It is. If a driver comes across the situation you described, any action other than a right-hand turn means they should probably take a driver's ed course again. Regardless of what a robotic voice on their phone is telling them. Google maps once instructed my wife to do a U-turn on Lakeshore Drive. Nope.

That's certainly the ideal approach, but I don't think it's realistic to plan for normal people behaving that way.

By the time I realized that Google had given me a route that would not work, breaking out of it cost me 10 minutes of sitting in traffic going the wrong way. I think most people would take the "drive like a jerk" alternative at that point, because the sunk-cost illusion is hard to let go of.

A self-driving car is basically just going to do what the mapping software tells it to as well, so the "bad instructions from tech companies" factor is a problem that needs to be addressed specifically anyway.

Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#69

Post by [deleted] »

setr wrote: post #60
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't understand the concept of "jaywalking". Is there something wrong with crossing the road in the US?

yes cars have dedicated lanes for driving bikes have dedicated lanes for biking legs have dedicated lanes for walking do NOT cross the lanes

[deleted]

Re: Abstreet: Traffic simulation game written in Rust

#70

Post by sixbrx »

setr wrote: post #60
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't understand the concept of "jaywalking". Is there something wrong with crossing the road in the US?

yes cars have dedicated lanes for driving bikes have dedicated lanes for biking legs have dedicated lanes for walking do NOT cross the lanes

Just a warning for those visiting the US - crosswalks will only give you a false sense of security in many parts of the the country (bigger cities possibly excepted), many drivers pay 0 attention to them. Had a car narrowly miss me last week in a crosswalk, and honked at me as it whizzed by. I've never witnessed any enforcement of these kinds of violations against the drivers, either.
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