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Rui Jiang

Professor. Tracy Jo Ingram

Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence

Research Plan

October 20, 2022

Overview

The research project will develop a technologically innovative lane robot program for New York Department of Transportation (NYC-DOT), to address the urban traffic congestion management especially in peak hours challenges in New York City. The program will let the road become remotely controlled by using robot.

Problem Statement

Reduced service speeds are a direct result of urban congestion in many countries. For instance, traffic congestion in the transportation sector frequently causes vehicles to overlap, increasing the risk of collisions. Additionally, many services are concentrated in major cities but that the same services, if diversified, might be provided in more remote locations, hence reducing the population concentration in major cities. There is a significant expansion of large metropolitan regions, like New York City and other regions globally, and it causes massive traffic that delays operations in the city since people fails to reach their workplaces and business on time. Traffic jam is a problem in the economy and is associated with more financial losses, and this is contributed by the rush hour culture that is present in the city of New York (Lu et al., p. 19). The city traffic problem is associated with the consequence of people's insatiable need to get where they are going, which causes daily gridlock on the world's roadways and public transportation networks. Despite the significant interventions towards the traffic problem in huge cities like New York, the traffic problem is continuously worsening. The lawmakers failed in their mandate to develop policies that guide and control the traffic problem experienced in New York, and it demands that the agencies come together and have alternative interventions that would work towards serving the interests of all. Although governments may never be able to eliminate traffic congestion entirely, there are some measures that states, and municipalities may take to lessen its impact. Every day, some too many people need and desire to move about at the same time. People must go about their daily activities, such as working, going to school, and running errands, at roughly the same time to ensure the smooth operation of the economy and the educational system. I will talk about the problem of traffic jams during rush hour, the current solution and the proposed solution that is a "lane robot" to address the problem.

Background

Core Issue

The core issue is that "rush hour" in New York comes with many challenges to motorists that find themselves in slow-moving traffic, taking much of their time. The problem of traffic congestion has been there for a while, and various interventions have been adopted, but it continues to worsen despite the efforts. The core of the challenge is the population of people in New York because the statistics indicate that twenty million people live in New York City, and they are dispersed to different regions and counties (Asgarzadeh et al., p. 179). The high population in the city becomes a menace during rush hour when people are heading to work, school, or business activities and at the point of heading home. The NYCDOT is responsible for managing the flow of traffic in the region and the mobility of people. Their mandate includes looking at the best strategies to ease the problem. Reducing congestion and making the most of mobility needs are two of the primary goals of traffic engineering, which plays a pivotal role in the design and planning of infrastructure and the application of data analytics and technology that help address the problem in a more advanced manner.

Present Solution

Rapidly expanding regions have seen an increase in the number of roads in the area, which has increased value but has yet to decrease peak-hour congestion. The road has been expanded over the years, and there are some reversible lanes which has eased the congestion, but the increasing number of cars on the roads makes it tough to address the rush hour traffic jam. The challenge is the real-time analytics coordination that would direct drivers, but the intervention helps in opening alternative road avenues, which is why many people are against building new roads. The data analytics and real-time data have assisted motorists with their short route to their destination, but there is still a gap in addressing the problem that is being experienced. This criticism is valid for already clogged roads because of triple convergence. The massive, predicted increase in the U.S. population, especially in New York City, means we will require a great deal of additional road and lane mileage in remote areas. An appropriate ramp meter needs to be established. For this reason, a gradual expansion of freeway access is required. There have been reports of improved traffic flow on New York's freeways during rush hour, and the technology has the potential to be used on a much larger scale. Intelligent Transportation System devices have only recently been adopted and are only partially implemented to speed up traffic flows. Some examples of these aids include electronic coordination of streetlights, variable-sized signage warning drivers of impending traffic conditions, one-way street designs, global positioning system (GPS) units in cars and trucks, and radio broadcasts of current road conditions. This technology, which is already available, can be instructive for drivers on freeways and helpful on surface streets.

Lane Robot

A reversible lane works based on the traffic lights or signs on the side of the road. If drivers do not see it, it could feel like you were going to collide head-on with oncoming traffic. So, it has a nicknamed a suicide lane. Auckland Harbour Bridge has lane robot in the end of 1990. The Injuries from centre-line head-on collisions is 6 fatal, 5 serious, 11 minor in 1989 to 0 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor in 1991 (Tin News). A reversible lane with a guardrail controlled by remote control robot helps traffic management in Shenzhen city, south China’s Guangdong Province and is the first of its kind in use in China. Shenzhen traffic police have stationed an army of 'lane robots' along Shennan Road. It can be a physical separation of opposite road. It can be safer. The entire lane change time can be completed within 1 minute. During the trial operation, the utilization rate of the tidal lanes on Shennan Avenue in Shenzhen city was relatively high, the traffic capacity of the east-west direction in the morning peak was increased by 12.1%, the vehicle speed was increased by 29%, and the end time of the morning peak was advanced from 10:00 to 9:00. In China, they also use the lane robot before the toll station. It is estimated that the processing capacity of the entrance and exit lane can be increased by 40% and 60% respectively. (Zheng, par. 2).

Proposed Solutions

Since the outcome for this technology did good job on the traffic congestion, I will propose this lane robot program for NYCDOT to adopt and use in order to improve the quality of life in New York City, particularly during rush hour. The Lane robot utilizes technology to manage reversible lanes, where traffic flow can be switched around based on circumstances such as peak hours. It is distinguished by the fact that the guardrail can move traffic lanes in response to changing conditions. Technology is the most effective solution for the notoriously bad traffic plagues New York City during rush hour, particularly in the morning and evening. This strategy lessens the burden placed on police officers to remain on duty for extended periods of time during peak times in the morning and evening; yet it also brings to light the threat that robots pose to jobs previously performed by humans.

The statistics have shown that the number of vehicles on New York City roads doubles during rush hours. This calls for an intervention that clears the traffic, and one that would be effective would be to use lane robot. Lane robot would allow cars to use complete lanes in the morning, and they would do the opposite in the evening. This would clear jams out of the New York central district. In order to find a solution to the problem of traffic bottlenecks that plague New York, the commissioner of NYCDOT should give some thought to the role that technology and data analytics could play. Investigating the technology makes it possible for certain scenarios in which the number of vehicles leaving the city in the morning is reduced in comparison, and most lanes moving out of the city are narrowed and replaced with cars heading into the city in order to clear the traffic and ease congestion (Zheng, par. 3). When lane robots use in the future, the process will make more efficient since the lane robots can change the direction of traffic and provide direction to drivers regarding which lanes to utilize by repositioning the guard rails to open or close the lanes.

Next Steps

The next step for the research is conducting interviews to better understand the topic of concern. The interview participants include the staff like Eric Beaton, Deputy commissioner for transportation planning and management working in NYCDOT. The intention of conducting the interview is to get to understand the strategies that the public organization NYCDOT has in place to ensure that the implementation of the lane robot is successful. The collection of the primary data is significant in giving detailed feedback about the plans that are in place to secure the interest of motorists by having lane robots on New York roads for the purpose of smooth flow of traffic during rush hour.

Interviewing is the best data collection tool that is valuable in understanding how the lane robot would be implemented and ensuring that it serves the interests of the motorists, the general public, and the traffic staff that are turned jobless. The secondary sources include getting reports from the Shenzhen traffic police in China to understand the current successes and the challenges they encountered during implementation. The other secondary sources include targeting the reports of the most successful cities globally, reviewing the intervention they adopted in managing their traffic, and looking into the challenges that come with the modern strategies to do it differently for New York City.

Future Research

New York traffic department of transport (NYCDOT), through their research team, should try and investigate details to understand if the lane robot would be a long-lasting solution for the city or if there would be other best alternatives. Looking into detail about lane traffic and researching the benefits and challenges, especially unemployment, helps make the adoption of the technology more effective.

Works Cited

Asgarzadeh, Morteza, et al. “The Role of Intersection and Street Design on Severity of Bicycle-Motor Vehicle Crashes.” Injury Prevention, vol. 23, no. 3, 2016, pp. 179–185. https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2016-042045.

Lu, Juan, et al. "Expansion of City Scale, Traffic Modes, Traffic Congestion, and Air Pollution ."Cities, vol 108, 2021, p. 102974.  Elsevier BV, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102974.

Zheng, Sarah. “'Robot' Technology Employed to Ease China's Notorious Traffic Jams.” South China Morning Post, 21 Apr. 2017, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2089478/robot-technology-helping-direct-traffic-southern-china?module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article&campaign=2089478.

http://www.xinhuanet.com//politics/2017-04/19/c_129548573.htm

https://new.qq.com/omn/20191103/20191103A0AEOG00.html

Road Zipper makes the move on the Golden Gate Bridgehttps://www.tinn.ir/Section-english-2/62258-road-zipper-makes-the-move-on-the-golden-gate-bridge