Fully self-driving cars, despite the claims of some companies, aren’t exactly ready to hit the roads anytime soon. There’s even a solid case to be made that completely autonomous vehicles (AVs) will never take over everyday travel. Regardless, some urban planners are already looking into ensuring how such a future could be as safe and efficient. According to a team at North Carolina State University, one solution may be upending the more-than-century-old design of traffic signals.
The ubiquity of stop lights’ Red-Yellow-Green phases aren’t just coincidence—they’re actually codified in an international accord dating back to 1931. This has served drivers pretty well since then, but the NC State team argues AVs could eventually create the opportunity for better road conditions. Or, at the very least, could benefit from some infrastructure adjustments.
Last year, researchers led by civil, construction, and environmental engineering associate professor Ali Hajbabaie created a computer model for city commuting patterns which indicated everyday driving could one day actually improve from a sizable influx of AVs. By sharing their copious amounts of real-time sensor information with one another, Hajbabaie and colleagues believe these vehicles could hypothetically coordinate far beyond simple intersection changes to adjust variables like speed and break times.
To further harness these benefits, they proposed the introduction of a fourth, “white” light to traffic signals. In this scenario, the “white” phase activates whenever enough interconnected AVs approach an intersection. Once lit, the phase indicates nearby drivers should simply follow the car (AV or human) in front of them, instead of trying to anticipate something like a yellow light’s transition time to red. Additionally, such interconnectivity could communicate with traffic signal systems to determine when it is best for “Walk” and “Do-Not-Walk” pedestrian…
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