Variable Traffic Signs
Posted: May 29th, 2006 | Author: admin | Filed under: Transportation | Tags: Adaptive, adaptive cruise control, California, city, Congestion, congestion mitigation strategies, Control, Cruise, detection, driver stress, employment, enforcement, engineering, example, freeway, freeway traffic, gas, Government, individual, Jams, Lancaster, Limit, Los Angeles, Mitigation, motion, redundancy, regulation, road, safety, Sign, solution, speed, speed limit signs, speed sensors, stop, suggestion, system, technology, traffic, traffic jams, Transportation, Variable, Washington | 1 Comment »In Reference to this article The Science of Traffic Jams which I encountered through completerss.com > sustainabilityzone.com: The Science of Traffic and Congestion Mitigation Strategies
I previously sent a suggestion to Los Angeles’ city transportation department, but as most government employment systems go… there was not much response to the idea.
I think the suggestion that I have come up with over the years of driving in LA is a similar solution that is achievable in a more reasonable time frame. It produces the same effect as an “Adaptive Cruise Control” system but without the need for retrofitting all cars with the technology. In fact since I first envisioned the idea it has been implemented around Lancaster California (for weather safety reasons), around Washington DC and I’m sure in other areas. It essentially turns each individual into “adaptive cruise controllers”, but requires a strict enforcement system (photo enforced speed sensors for example) to become effective.
The idea is to add “Variable Speed Limit Signs” throughout the inner urban freeway systems. What it will do from a technical point of view, is monitor the average traffic speed on the freeway within a certain span of freeway before and after the “Variable Speed Limit Sign” (approximately 3-10 miles). After sensors in the road (or other methods of speed sensing such as video motion detection) determine the average traffic speed. An average speed will be displayed on the “Variable Speed Limit Sign” which becomes the new speed limit (legally enforced). This will prevent the stop and go redundancy in freeway traffic which waists gas and increases traffic and driver stress, among other things mentioned in the article.
In order to implement this system, a strict regulation on the variable speed limits would need to be enforced. If the variable speed limits cannot be enforced, obviously the system cannot be effective. One advantage to this system is that it does not require a great deal of engineering of new freeway systems, it just makes the current system more efficient.
This system will not solve the Freeway Traffic problems entirely (that’s what removing corrupt lobbied politicians and adding public transportation is for!), but it will definitely make the current and future systems run more smoothly.