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UPS Using Software To Eliminate Left Turns
cybermage writes "The NY Times has a story about UPS using software to dramatically reduce the number of left turns their drivers take. With a fleet of vehicles their size, the time and money saved by pre-planning routes that try to eliminate left turns means big savings." Some CS major probably figured this out instead of traveling salesman.
Nope, salesman.
Badass Resumes
Left turning cars are a big cause of motorcycle accidents. (It happened to Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers.) I've read a lot about motorcycle safety and a major point was too look out for cars who are turning left. They never see you and cause some of the worst types of crashes.
FTA:
Wow thats a lot of miles. This is a really good use of software engineering.
In case people don't know why the parent made that post - you can't make any sort of turn on red in the UK. Red means stop, and stop is what it means. No wiggle room.
I remember driving in San Francisco, my first time driving in the US. I only got caught the once being beeped because I'd just stopped at red and didn't turn right although it was clear, but my other local transgression was a lot worse. We came up to some flashing red lights - I had no idea what they were for. There was one car in front of us before the lights, it stopped for a while and then went. I thought "ah ha - flashing red means stop and go if clear".
It doesn't. It means "tram coming". I found this out at the end of the week we stayed there, suddenly realising I'd spent the entire week running red lights against trams...
Cheers,
Ian
The article is actually about how UPS is going to lessen global warming or some such silly thing like that. They aren't, the increased distance the route can plot makes you drive as long (it doesn't truly matter if your diesel truck is idling at a light or driving in a circle). It is, however, easier for a driver to make less left turns and probably has some sort of psychological effect on other drivers to not see them in the left lane.
"Last year, according to Heather Robinson, a U.P.S. spokeswoman, the software helped the company shave 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, which has resulted in savings of roughly three million gallons of gas and has reduced CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons."
The software is excellent, it makes great routes, can cut down on any number of hassles, but seriously the main point is NOT to eliminate left turns. The software is meant to get more packages out, more quickly, to more people, with less drivers, and more profit.
Silly NY Times writers.
"Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble."
This page tells a little about them.
They work great here in Columbus, Ohio. They only go on during heavy traffic times, and keep the flow of traffic on the highway going at a relatively quick speed. In Cleveland, where they do not have them. During a green light merge frenzy, the speed of the highway easily drops below the speed of local streets.
Why does the union decide on the route?
Well, if the computer tells you your route and tells management how many miles that should put on the odometer and how much time it should take, it would be pretty hard to make side trips or otherwise slack off.
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
It was on Digg more than a year ago. And we all know how prompt Digg is, so this is quite old news.
Indeed, it's a reference to a classic computational logic problem, "the Traveling Salesman problem."
What's funny here is that a "few left turns" solution is still in the domain of the Traveling Salesman. It's not a case of "instead of," it's just a tiny bit more detailed as far as algorithms go. It simply attaches a different cost or weight on different edges of the graph, and in fact different directions of the same edge. Now, it takes a fair amount of work to provide accurate costs for each mile and corner along a route, but given that embedded GPS platforms can handle this sort of level of detail, I'm not worried about that.
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You can take a look at the Wikipedia information on the origin of the quotation:
"Calwell's remark in Parliament in 1947 that 'Two Wongs don't make a White' is widely quoted. The remark was intended as a joke, being a reference to a Chinese resident called Wong who was wrongly threatened with deportation, and a Liberal MP, Sir Thomas White. Today the remark is seen as evidence that Calwell was a racist."
[see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Calwell ]
Bzzzt.... in fact, she's the one who told me the joke (and has repeated it to her friends often). Thanks for playing, though.
safety issues i'd like to share:
1. semis with properly functioning and adjusted brakes can stop very quickly. not as fast as a car of course, but faster than you'd expect. some newer trucks/trailers have ABS and can really surprise you.
2. a two axle straight truck can stop almost as quickly as a car. these can look exactly like a trailer from behind. don't tailgate a straight truck.
3. you don't have to hang 5ft off the bumper. mythbusters examined this and found that 35 ft is pretty good for fuel economy. that's still tailgating but not atypical for urban area highways/freeways.
4. do not tailgate until you have established that the trailer's brake lights are working. they are more reliable than passenger car brake lights since the trucks get inspected all the time, but it's still something to be wary of.
5. trucks/trailers obscure your visibility of unfolding events ahead. you can see through, over, or around a smaller vehicle and react to upcoming events at the same time as (often earlier than) the drivers ahead of you. can't do that when there's a big trailer in front of you.
6. note the bumper height mismatch. some trailers have a bar around 16'' off the ground to match up with your bumper in collisions. these are great. if the trailer doesn't have this, you have substantially less protection since the trailer frame will probably meet up with your car around the height of your neck. drive accordingly.
The accordion effect kicks in with rapid changes in speed, not gradual ones. Now, if you don't make it to the lights before they change back to green you really are holding up traffic, but provided you do get to them before they change you're actually helping the traffic to flow more smoothly. The exception of course is lights which are operating with sensors rather than on a timer - the lights simply won't consider changing before you get close, so by unnecessarily delaying your arrival at them you're just slowing yourself down and harming your fuel economy. Oh, and while it may be economical to minimise you deceleration, it's most economical to get back up to speed quickly. All that time at intermediate speeds if you accelerate slowly hurts more than a quick burst at full throttle and the rest at your cruising speed - the engine is most economical at full throttle and the car is, till you approach motorway/highway speeds, more economical the faster you go.
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