Tom Vanderbilt Shouldn’t Drive

Wired has an interesting article up titled “Tom Vanderbilt’s Why We Drive the Way We Do Unlocks How to Unclog Traffic”. In it, Tom talks about what made him decide to write Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us). The article talks about some of the fundamental problems with auto traffic, including people making decisions for their own personal benefit to the detriment of the system as a whole:

A typical puzzle: Waiting for an on-ramp metering light — a mild and remarkably effective congestion-control measure — has been proven to rankle drivers more than merging directly into a traffic jam. “What bothers people is that they can see traffic flowing smoothly,” Vanderbilt says. “So they think, ‘Why should I wait?’ They tend not to accept that the traffic is flowing smoothly precisely because of the metering light.”

The article eventually comes to the conclusion that a highly networked system in which cars behaved similar to packets of information flowing along the information superhighway would be optimal, however people would never stand for it. The lesson? Until people are willing to give up the steering wheel, expect to see congestion continue.

Germans Shouldn’t Brake at Stop Lights

A dashboard display tells you how fast to drive to avoid a red light.

What if your car told you how fast to drive to avoid a red light? Even better, what if the traffic lights talked to the cars in order to better time their light changes. According to the KickingTires article “Audi Takes on Stop Lights: A Must Read”, Audi is partnering with the government of Ingolstadt, Germany to network the traffic signals together with specially-equipped cars in order to deliver optimum light switching and assist cars through traffic lights. The initiative is being pushed as a gas-saving measure, as less stopping means less gas used. The article doesn’t go too much into the technical details of the project, however it does have some pictures of the car dashboard.

GM puts lasers on windshield

A laser outlines the edge of the road.

Squinting to see the lines on the road during fog or rain may soon one day become a thing of the past. CNN.com reports in the article titled “Futuristic windshield aims to help older drivers” that GM is currently researching a windshield that will use lasers, infrared sensors, and a camera to point out road markings, edges of the road, and even obstacles in the vehicles path.

The researchers are mainly targeting this system toward older drivers who can not see the road as clearly, but it’s easy to see this technology being useful for all drivers. And who knows, maybe the technology that helps us more easily spot road edges could one day be used to help our future automated chauffeurs spot them as well.