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Solutions for Avoiding Traffic?
gregwbrooks asks: "Technology lets us wardrive and kludge together interesting uses for the OnStar equipment in our vehicles, but what about the one thing I really need: On-demand, real-time traffic information? These guys have a BREW-based app that downloads real-time traffic maps to your cell phone -- it just rolled out in Chicago and Milwaukee, and apparently is going national soon. What other options are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?"
If only there were some kind of wireless information distribution mechanism where a human could give traffic reports vocally. Reports from different places could be communicated across different "channels" from different wireless broadcasting "stations". Since traffic isn't always a problem, and since people aren't always interested in traffic, these channels could also distribute other types of information, perhaps even audio entertainment. The only problem is how to pay for it. Wait, I got it! Audio commercial advertisements! Perhaps some day all cars will come equipped with one of these receiver devices as standard equipment.
the radio station usually broadcast traffic reports every 10 minutes, so its pretty easy to get updates.
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
What would be very slick would be an open source system that integrates with wireless data (GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, WiFi -- take your pick) and GPS to project onto your windshield in heads-up-display (HUD) manner what the traffic conditions are ahead of you. Being open source, you could then add whatever modules interest you so that your HUD could indicate when you are near a Starbucks, state park, 2600 meeting location, weather conditions ahead, or whatever you might want to know while driving. Heck, with a system like that motorists could even pinpoint the locations of speed traps for each other. Imagine your HUD flashing a red warning of "speed trap 1500 meters ahead"...
If you tell everyone to avoid street 1, out of 2 streets, then you flood street 2. If it can be clustered or load balanced (beowulf?) so that people are distributed evenly on alternate routes.. this could be REALLY viable.
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ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
Ride a bike ;)
gets rid of that lardy arse (an ass is a donkey!) too!
These devices/apps are just what you want.
This was also talked about previously.
You can dial 511 on your phone in San Fransico and give your starting point end and end point and it will give you a real time traffic assesment and the time from point A to point B. With some pretty cool voice regonition software.
Story about automated traffic in SF
I heard a story on All Things Considered just yesterday about a phone based system for finding drive times between two locations. It is called 511 , it is available only in the Bay Area right now, it uses a variety of data including road sensors and speed pass data for near-real time traffic data calculations. It sounds iteresting : http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=17889 73
I had a 55 mile commute for a while, right through the heart of Minneapolis, and through the worst strechs of traffic in the twin cities. I looked at all the traffic info I could, but in the end I rarely changed my route. Sure I had a few alternates, but a couple miles of stop and go is still faster than any of the alternates that take me 20 miles out of the way. Side streets do not go through, nobody wants traffic in their neighborhood (the kids can and do play ball in the street) so they make it impossible to take anything but major routes. Combine that with traffic lights timed to stop you on the secondary streets and you are much better off stoped on the freeway than moving on a "empty" side street.
Course public transportation would be better, if it worked... I'm not holding my breath.
...are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?
A: Pull over and then fiddle around with tiny web pages on your phone.
XM Radio just added over 20 channels for most major metropolitan areas that give you a quick 5 minute traffic and weather report. Find out if your city is listed here.
Of course, the cost of the hardware and the monthly subscription fee may turn many off.
Talk to your managers about telecommuting a day or two a week. That way you only have to worry about the traffic between your bedroom and your home office.
The other solution that I've found is to live no more than five miles from the office. This gives me a typical commute of about 10 minutes from the front door to my desk.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
Never leave the house.
Remember, the #1 cause of traffic jams is traffic. The best way to avoid traffic jams is to not drive.
As soon as everyone starts using fancy new technowidgets to find alternate routes routes to traffic jams, traffic will be routed to those alternate routes. Unfortunately, the alternate routes usually won't be able to handle alot of traffic, so the alternate routes will get jammed up as well.
If you get some new device today it would probably give you the edge up for a few years. But just think of what else you could spend that $1000 on.
Around here, we have spent $billions to build new freeways and roads to reduce "Traffic congestion", however these new roads always end up being just as clogged as the old routes.
I've been riding my bike & taking public transit to work for 7 years now, and it's great.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
1. Telecommute - don't leave the house, but still get paid.
2. Move - be closer to work or be somewhere where there's less commuter traffic hindering your journey.
3. Change jobs - ie, commute somewhere else instead.
4. Use public transport - use your travelling time productively, reading a book or something.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
The Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee traffic web site gives the real-time traffic information from sensors embedded in the highways. It also tells you where the scheduled highway construction is. The only problem is that some highways, like the Illinois tollway system, don't participate.
With that all you need to see the traffic situation is wireless web access. Maybe you could use Wardriving. Ironically, then the worse the traffic backup is, the easier it would be to see the traffic map!
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
> Solutions for Avoiding Traffic?
/. would be my first suggestion...
Not getting a post on
What do you mean, not THAT type of traffic?
I've noticed that the slow lane (far right) appears to have the optimal flow rate for a highly congested highway.
I used to drive on a major highway daily where the traffic was literally bumper to bumper, stop and go. During rush hour, the fastest route (except HOV lanes) was to stick to the far right, even to stay in the "local lanes" on the right of the jersey wall.
It doesn't make sense to me, but that tactic has shaved hours off my commute time over the years.
Just a thought.
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
XM Radio just started broadcasting about 25 channels of 24 hour Traffic. It's great, as my city is one of the ones covered. No affiliation, just a happy user.
Not as drastic as giving up driving or moving closer...
Change your schedule by 15-30 minutes.
Awhile back, I realized that if I left my house at 7:30 I'd get through traffic and land at work at 8:30, BUT if I left my house at 8:15 (45 minutes later) I could get to work by 8:45. That's a half hour cut off my commute each way, or an hour a day, gained by simply letting everybody else fight to get to work first. When the masses are mostly in town and parked, I leave my house. My work hours are only shifted 15 minutes! I arrive at 8:45 instead of 8:30, I save an hour a day on my commute, not to mention the reduced gas consumption, pollution, and aggravation.
Leaving 45 minutes earlier just to sit still on the parkway did seem pretty silly. Am I the only one with a wee bit of flexibility in my schedule?
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Only when you truly understand this that the solution will become evident.
You don't sit in the traffic jam; you are the traffic jam. -- Werner Icking
LA has a whole bunch of traffic sensors and these guys use them to build a realtime map of freeway speeds. They cover a few other cities and they also carry all the Caltrans accident reports for cities with no sensors.
The best part is that you can login with your WAP enabled phone and check your predefined routes and see which one is the fastest.
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.
I do this too. I work at a school and commute 40 miles from Providence to Boston. I've found that the commute is worst from 7:30-8:30am, so I aim to get to work at 9:00am. I leave at work 6:00pm, giving me a nice 'quiet hour' after everybody else leaves to do preparation for the next day and organizational stuff.
There's another guy in my office who gets here at 7:00am and leaves at 3:00pm. He gets his 'quiet hour' before the day starts.
As long as yourr boss is someone who is a reasonable person you can get something like this set up, you can make an argument that you're more productive and happier with an hour on either side of the day to work in peace.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
I usually work from 10 AM to 7 PM in Santa Monica where I work. I travel about 35 miles (one way) through 10 and 60 FWYs (carpooling with someone). It doesn't seem to matter what time we leave (8 AM /9 AM) and (6 PM/7 PM) on week days. Even at 10:30 AM/7:30 PM, the traffic is still slow. The best hours seem to be like 11 AM and 8 PM or later.
:(
However, I have to be in the office by 11:00 AM sharp and meetings usually start at that hour. Also, I wouldn't have any time to prepare my workday (e.g., read e-mails, use restrooms, etc.).
Los Angeles traffic really sucks! Our commutes are usually over an hour to two hours (one way)! Without traffic (really rare like on a holiday), 40 minutes!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
On the nights I have chorus rehearsals I drive to work. Because that's after the morning rush hour, I drive to work in the fast line, but I leave a decent space in front of me in case the cars in front get nervous.
In the evening, traffic on the 401 can be bad .. that's when I start in the slow lane while everyone else is battling for space in the fast line, but by the time they're fighting their way off the highway, I'm back in the fast lane again.
Whatever lane I'm in, I always try to leave a few carlengths in front .. what that does is to allow me to absorb the shock waves that propogate back through traffic during rush hour. It looks like I'm being an idiot by the cars behind me, but they probably don't realize that they're going at a constant speed rather than speeding up, braking, speeding up, braking, speeding up, braking. Which one do you think is better for your car and your mileage?
And please, Slower Traffic Keep Right!
(Venture capitalists take note: this would be huge in L.A.)
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Sleep during the day!
Simple as that. By taking the night shift, you don't have to fight traffic. And because your not spending time on the road, you have less stress going to and from work. Also, saving time allows you to put it to better use. Such as, spending that time with family, friends, taking care of chores, or extra sleep.
Life is not for the lazy.
If it's legal in your state! Most of the helicopter traffic dudes/chicks use UHF FM broadcasts to talk to the local radio stations. You'll get traffic reports during commute hours every few minutes. You won't have to fiddle with a cellphone, or other stuff in the car that's dangerous - even if you are only going 10 MPH.
AT&T Wireless already offers this on their mMode service. There's a picture of what it looks like in this forum post.
while driving in your car in chicago you can tune to either 530 (i think) or 16?? something on the am dial and get regularly updated traffic information that's put out by the department of transportation. Nice, and free.
It's been in production in Europe in a number of countries; I have a TMC-capable navigation system in my car, and traffic jams show up nicely (and I'm rerouted accordingly).
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
That's like checking your local weather forecast by watching the weather channel and waiting for your city's 2 seconds-of-attention at some point in the 15 min weather-report loop, when you can click a link online and get the information you want instantly.
In this technological era, we *expect better* than the report-loop way of transmitting information.
"What other options are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?"
Just sit back, relax and enjoy it. People, especially in the US, seem to develop a habit of making themselves frustrated over traffic. Poor time planning, habitual generalized aggression, assumed impatience for no real reason, whatever, people get irritated over something that getting irritated about only makes worse.
Give yourself plenty of time, take it easy and relax. How often do you get a good excuse to get away from everyone and chill? Use it. Hell, take the slow route.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
instead of a widget or service for your phone, go and buy the sweetest, newest bicycle you can. On city streets, you will be the fastest thing around. You'll get fresh air, great exercise and vastly more urban mobility than a car. Cargo space sucks, though. 8)
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
Here in the Washington DC area EVERYONE knows the alternates. As soon as there is a wreck or major jam anyplace every alternate jams up in minutes.
This sort of discussion always amazes me, nobody thinks of the obvious solutions to avoiding traffic jams. Here are some solutions that worked for me. Notice that none of these solutions involve spending money on computer gadgets.
1. Get a new apartment that's closer to work.
2. Take mass transit. The subway never has traffic jams.
3. Live downtown, that way you're commuting the opposite way from rush hours and have the other side of the freeway all to yourself. You're trying to get out of downtown when people are trying to get in, and vice versa.
4. Change the schedule to avoid rush hours, work the night shift, or go to work at 5AM and work till 1PM.
5. Find alternate routes on surface roads that avoid freeway congestion. I knew a secret route between West Hollywood and Downtown LA that took only 15 minutes, freeway drivers can't even get off at the downtown exits in 15 minutes.
There is a special corner of Avichi Hell reserved for people who want to solve auto traffic problems with computers. That reserved spot will be right next to Bill Gates, who would today merely be a moderately rich lawyer at Preston, Gates & Ellis, except that one day he got intrigued by a computer programming problem in traffic measurement and founded his first company, Traf-O-Data.
Problem solved. No need to thank me.
What other options are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?"
Trains.
Busses.
Taxis.
Bicycles.
Feet.
Translated:
Answer: Traffic is not a problem if you don't drive. Ride a bike, walk, or catch public transport. If you live in a place where this is difficult, move somewhere where it isn't.
Called feet. If the traffic's bad enough, sometimes driving can actually take longer.
Everything will be taken away from you.
LA has huge urban sprawl and a fairly inept mass transit system. It's there, but unless you can take a Metrolink train, using the system will take you a LONG time.
So here's my plan: turn one lane of all the major freeways into a motorcycle-only lane. It doesn't have to be wide enough for a vehicle. Then require people to take a stringent safety test before being allowed to use the lane, and offer tax breaks or some other financial incentive for qualified users. I know in this litigious country this idea will never fly but hey I can dream.
www.clarke.ca
Traffic jam analysis. FAQ.
I avoid traffic by driving round it.
Alternative routes are useless (other than providing a sometimes welcome change of scenery), as a previous poster pointed out, because eventually they become known to everyone, and equally clogged. Then councils install schemes to stop the traffic clogging up those roads and you're back to the main road. Sat Nav may provide some short term gains, but eventually when everyone has it there'll be no benefit. Sat Nav will probably only help with one-off journeys.
Cue usual posts about death and destruction, although let me point out that many motorcyclists _don't_ die on (or having recently "dismounted") their bikes, and that car drivers converting their tin boxes to crypts are not entirely unheard of. Advanced Motorcycling certainly helps (TVAM).
The 22 mile commute I used to take took anything from 45 minutes to 2 hours and 45 minutes depending on the number and severity of accidents. By motorbike that dropped to a fairly consistent 35 minutes. Now I live in the same town I work in, I cross the town centre starting any time from 8.15 to 8.45 and it takes 25 minutes tops to cross the town centre (5 miles). In a car? No idea. At least an hour, probably, but I haven't attempted it. I keep thinking I should perhaps try it one day when I have some leave, but when I'm not at work I'm usually too busy inspecting the insides of my eyelids.
I left 45 minutes to ship a package all of 5 miles away. Thats' roughly 20 minutes to get there and back, and 25 minutes to get stuck.
.... run into mom who requires a green turn arrow before she'll consider turning and risking her precious cargo. Slow moving ford truck catches up and blocks me in- 1 more minute gone.
... until I get to the last light and see the traffic not moving. Figuring a stalled vehicle, I dive into the right lane (couldn't see over the SUVs in the left) and find out it's a cop directing a funeral. yes, I am hoping the guy the cop was going to see and the ambulance was going to rescue seems to have been burried just that fast.
... Idiotic Dad is sitting there counting 7 second cars. As in, "I won't turn if there isn't at least 7 seconds between the oncoming car and me". I waited 3 minutes, 22 seconds there.
So turn down the road and the first light is blocked because of a cop car. Fine- he's in a hurry to an accident, go. Miss that light.
The next light I'm stuck behind Grandma that won't turn on red, with no vehicular traffic in either direction. 2 minutes gone.
Drive down the lane and come upon a ford truck pulling a tractor bed. Must have been some stupid commercial. Jump into the left lane, pass (Still speed limit) and
Finally can zip around mom, and around slow moving truck, to get a light to turn in front of me red. wait 2 minutes. Go forward; lights change suddenly (no yellow), wait 2 more minutes.
Get to the next light (200 feet total in 4 minutes so far) and the morons failed to clear the intersection on a yellow- so there is a line of cars blocking both roads of traffic. Light reds out before they clear finally. Then.... an ambulance comes on the next green light, probably to go save whatever poor bloke the cop was going to see.
By now I'm pretty livid. That damn truck has caught up with me again and has once again blocked me in. But it's a straightaway with no traffic, and I should make good time....
After waiting for 4 freaking minutes, the cop goes on... but I'm stuck behind moron teenager that accelerates slowly until I finally get enough clearance to get around him, then guns it and pulls in front of me to block me off so he can make his left turn. Pass around on the right, back into my lane, and get ready to turn when....
Then he proceeded to take the 25 mph speed bumps at 5 mph. I passed him on a residential street because I honestly couldn't take it anymore.
You say to relax, well, that's a typical day in Rochester, NY.
Wow.... thanks for that link. That was one of the coolest things I've read in recent memory.
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
Affordable housing. That doesn't mean rent controlled. It means exceeding demand.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Here are some good things to read:
Traffic Patterns and How To Erase Traffic Jams
Traffic Psychology
Read my keyboard review.
If you're only going 10 miles, you could bike it. If you're in the flatlands, it should only take about 30min top, regardless of traffic. Even if you're not, it'll only take about 45min (as it is for me). Chalk up the extra time it takes out of your time alloted for going to the gym. As a bonus, you always get a warm, fuzzy feeling as you bike past a huge traffic jam.
I have been running this page for about a year now, and the people who use it love me for it.
Enter this WAP site into your cell phone:
http://nwrs.net/traffic/
It offers the following feature set:
Estimated travel times between major locations
Express lane direction information
Traffic accident notices
Traffic maps for puget sound region, including tacoma
Traffic cameras
A few new features are coming soon, including a router planner that estimates your travel time to and from a location (like work to home, home to work)
The images are optimized for cellular handsets and PDA's with screens of 120 horizontal pixels or larger, although im sure content engines will scale these images down for you. Works great on my SprintPCS 8100...
If you do and he wins, sooner or later your job will go overseas without you, you won't have to leave the house anymore, and thus you won't be stuck in traffic every day.
Problem solved.
This moves the traffic and parking problems from downtown to the high-speed train stations. High speed rail lines need widely spaced stops; the train's high peak speed is wasted each time the train must brake, wait for passengers to board and disembark, and re-accelerate back to cruising speed. This is the same phenomenon that makes a 15MPH bicycle competitive with a 35MPH city bus: the bus stops often, spending less time running at "normal" speed.
So more passengers must travel longer average distances to each widely-spaced train station. The time saving is real only if the downtown area is so crowded that travel by automobile is impractical (as in Manhattan or downtown San Francisco). Thus the rail line originally intended to relieve congestion, in the long term, causes congestion to propogate to outlying areas. Just like Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and the East Bay. The only real solution to congestion is to avoid requiring so many people to travel at the same time, to the same destinations, over such long distances. Sadly, that much-touted benefit of the information age remains a mirage for most of the working population.
Ahem... Free!!! Tech rant: This is both an "if you live in..." and "Bikes!" and "The simple solution is sometimes the best". So here you go. Cities that have free bikes for you to get around on. Really. Copenhagen, Denmark Helsinki, Finland Denver, CO, USA and Portland, OR, USA The Country of Lithuania And others... Yes, they get stolen and stuff. Mixed results. A work in progress, you might say. Maybe one of you eggheads will figure out how to make it work better. ;-)
I don't know about ya'll but I live in a tiny town. No, I don't mean I live in a town with 25,000 people (I swear, you city folks). I don't even live in a town with 10,000 people. My town has 231 residents, not counting cats or dogs. That's it. We really don't have much of a traffic problem in these parts. The only traffic delays we encounter might be cattle on the road, road construction, a tractor or combine, or a trooper on a ticket binge. If you want to avoid traffic congestion then move away from the traffic.
My replacement will be permitted to telecommute from India.
How much do you pay for mortages, fuel, insurance, parking, repairs etc for your car? (sometimes also including obesity-related medical expenses) What will that be per kilometer? ... for your trip to work? How large are your hourly wages? Then, how many minutes of your work is actually used for your car commute?
To paraphrase ... "drive to work, work to drive" ...
In this regard, a bike or bike/public transport combo can in many cases have a superior speed, even during uncongested conditions.
References: Auto Costs Versus Bike Costs
When we are installing mandatory gimmicks in cars, it would be a nice time to intergrate a speed countrol system. European railways has got it for years. Traffic lights and speed signs could have transponders, broadcasting their value. A sensor in the car collects this. The unit aboard would not let you run a red light or drive above speed limit if not, perhaps, a sealed "emergency" button was used. This would save many lifes.
This gimmick would probably be produced in large series, and therefore quite cheap. It would have some kind of connection to the rest of the vehicle computers, exporting access to the sensor tru an open and well-defined API. Then you could co-utilize (sp?) this sensor for also detecting coffe or whatever.
Two possible designs:
Sort range communication, with physical devices on signs etc, and signal-to-car and car-to-car communication (the latter for fx. keeping distance. Could be mandatory or just for warning. Also possible to use for thoose inter-car-messages)
Global communication, using GPS and cellular packet radio. This would allow speed limits to just be plotted on the map, no physical electronics needed. It could also be used for non-mandatory jam-avoidance systems. Could have larger privacy risks.
Thoose devices would of cource use the same protocol for the mandatory communication, but it could also be a good time to allow for an (open and modular, of course) common inter-vehicle commonications protocol (ivcp :-) also for the non-mandatory stuff. Should probably leave as much as possible to already established protocols.
Yes, this could be seen as a "limitation of freedom", but driving a car (with all the imposed risks to other people) on the public roads is IMO a privillege, not a right.Perhaps the car, as a transportation system, would be a tad less attractive (but much safer) if it only could move at legal speeds and legal manners. This would also be a way to "avoid the traffic". Ergo. :-)
Can we, geeks of all arts and kinds, really stand thoose gaping security holes in TrafficOS, that allow the script kiddies of our traffic network people to break in and gain unauthorized privilleges? Is is time for some serious security audit of Traffic, for firewalls and sound secure design!
The Bike Brain connects a Palm to your bike. The computerized bike Behemoth includes a Sun box (and three other PC-class computers) and has probably been on slashdot before. It has HUD, communications, everything and more ...
The bus drivers are on strike.
I work for the company behind that. Traffic Pulse Networks. We'll be adding many more over the course of this year. "Stay tuned" nyuck nyuck
No.