Informatic

Informatics to Alleviate Traffic Congestion

Domain Definition:

We’ve selected a project in the transportation domain of informatics. This domain is interesting because it’s not very common, but it is very important to society as everyone uses some means of transportation. Transportation informatics covers the people, information, and technology used to improve transportation systems such a cars, trains, and airplanes. As technology continues to improve, there is now more information than ever in the transportation domain, but many people don’t realize how this information can help solve various transportation problems.

Problem Definition:

The problem we wish to solve is how to alleviate traffic congestion using informatics. This problem is extremely important because almost everyone has in some way been affected by traffic congestion. Traffic congestion wastes time and money, impacts productivity, and damages the environment. When there is traffic congestion, cars travel at slower speeds, people experience longer trip times, and there is increased vehicular queueing. People are sitting in their cars and wasting time and gas due to traffic. If traffic congestion were to be alleviated, people would be able to get to where they need to be quicker and be more productive than just sitting in a transportation vehicle. Another major drawback of having traffic congestion is the pollution vehicles add to the environment while sitting idle or moving at slow speeds.

People/Information/Technology:

People who drive cars will benefit from our informatic solution. Whether they are employees and students who commute everyday, travelers who are on the turnpike to another city or truck drivers who deliver packages or products to the destination, almost everyone can take advantage of the enhanced transportation informatics system. Not limited to the routine use, researchers or constructors will also benefit from the data that collects and provides by the system in order to conduct various research or optimize future road design.

Various technologies have been implemented to help manage traffic congestion. Street cameras near freeways and bridges record live streams of car accidents and transmit footage to traffic control centers. In turn, these control centers can deploy emergency vehicle to accident scenes quickly. Streets and freeways that are embedded with inductive-loop traffic detectors can collect data relating to traffic flow. But to specifically prevent traffic congestion from occurring, additional traffic flow management techniques have been sparsely used. Some cities have experimented with congestion pricing, which relies on individual-based data. In Singapore, cars are equipped with transponders that inform toll collection units whether the vehicle has entered a busy district during peak hours. Cars that have done so are subject to extra fees to deter drivers from clogging up busy roads. Mobile apps such as Waze and Google Maps determine when and where accidents occur based on data obtained from users near accident scenes, and relay that information with other users to prevent additional traffic.