Virtual traffic lights help solve commuting hell

[Nipuna]

Will Ferguson, reporter

(Image: Diana Lee Angstadt/Flickr/Getty)

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Your average driver spends a week each year stuck in traffic. So Ozan Tonguz, a telecommunications researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is looking to nature for an innovative solution to gridlock. His team is trying to emulate the way in which ants, termites, and bees communicate right of way in busy colonies and hives.

Tonguz's company, Virtual Traffic Lights, recently patented an algorithm that directs traffic at busy junctions. As cars approach the intersection, they use dedicated short-range communications to quickly exchange information on their number and direction of travel. The largest group of vehicles is given an in-car green light. Cars in the other cluster see a red light and have to wait.

As soon as the biggest group of cars passes through the intersection, the next biggest group is given the green light. Simulations over the past three years have shown the system could reduce commute time for urban workers between 40 to 60 per cent during rush hour.

The project has attracted $2 million in funding from private groups and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration since it began in 2009. The team is now working on algorithms that will take pedestrians and cyclists into account at intersections. Large-scale testing is due to begin next year.