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MIT Researchers Fight Gridlock with Linux
nerdyH brings us a report about a Linux-based device being developed at MIT which aims to reduce traffic congestion as well as assist automotive research projects.
"The current focus of the project is in developing algorithms that run on top of the portal application to help drivers plot the best route at a given time. For example, the team's MyRoute project includes applications that model delays observed on road segments as statistical distributions. Various algorithms then use these to compute optimal routes for different times of the day. 'Instead of asking the shortest time or shortest distance from point A to point B, you ask what route should be taken, say, for the highest probability of getting to the airport by a certain time depending on the time selected,' says Madden."
that know how to game the system will ever get to the airport on time, cool.
Within a few years I don't think we'll just be using statistics of past data, but rather real-time traffic data from cars that link into a real-time network. All it will take is a certain density of smartphones with GPS.
Eliminate green arrows from 12am-5am! As an overnight worker I can not tell you how many times I've had to sit at a red light twice because the sensor didn't want to trigger for just one car - and I know the one time I decide to go on a red arrow there is going to be a cop right around the corner.
But actually, that would be a good us of the system; if there ever were an evacuation, it would be useful to have a system to reroute around the inevitable traffic jams...
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
It is about time we applied techonolgy to solve the worlds problems. What if all the business leaders coordinated to shift their employee arrival and departure times slightly so as to create a well orchestrated movement of workers? With a little funding I could build a system to coordinate the daily rush hours. The system would take into account departure points and destinations, the course and various elements on the course, and perhaps the best course, preferences and people would select a travel spot. Even better all the cars can communicate with each other, knowing their drivers intended destination an artificial intelligence could coordinate suggesting the best time to move into the middle or left lane, sending some cars down an alternate route to relieve some congestion which in the end results in everyone getting home quickly which is the incentive to participate. How many billions of gallons of gasoline could be saved if we simply knew the most energy efficient route especially when driving in unfamiliar territory? Far more money would be saved than the cost of the system and the benefits would be extraordinary.
"an infinite player that has lost his finite mind" ~Infinite Play the Movie (it blends with reality)
Reading the summary and article can't but wonder - what if it didn't run Linux but something else? Would it still be news worthy?
/. to ask if it runs Linux, but really - who cares? '90s are long gone. Linux is a common thing these days.
Recently I've been noticing this trend of news about "stuff" doing "things" they were designed to do and the punch line being - it runs Linux.
Now... I know its a time honored tradition at
Also... If it works - it works. Does my GPS or stereo run on Linux? Who cares? It works.
If this keeps up I am guessing its only days before local mobile-phone connoisseur (that's idiot in English) informs me of the fact that his brand new communication device has "A Linux" and that its battery runs on kernels.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Density. There are simply too many cars for the roads. Public transit is partly to blame; it's gotten better and more convenient (the Charlie Card was a major improvement- people can board busses *really* fast now, and I'm seeing fewer and fewer here-is-what-I-found-in-my-change-jar types), but the T still has miles to go in terms of reliability, routes, and just plain cleanliness.
GPS units (and Yahoo/Mapquest/Google maps) which go for the shortest/fastest route, not the *best* route or route with the most 'bandwidth'. For example, it's technically shorter to cut *through* longwood medical area, but it's much faster to go around it- even though there are more traffic lights, they're all in your favor.
Stupid traffic lights. There's a major intersection near me where, despite the complexity of the intersection (five streets), it's not wired with pads to tell how many cars are where. One car on a tiny side-street fucks up traffic on roads which are classified as arterial (y'know, the ones you can't park on during a snow emergency.) Boston and surrounding cities have hundreds of such intersections- but you'll only find the "smart" ones where rich people live.
Please help metamoderate.
I have pretty much only ONE way to get to work, about twenty-five miles of expressway.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
R is a velocity measure, defined as a reasonable speed of travel that is consistent with health, mental wellbeing and not being more than say five minutes late. It is therefore clearly an almost infinitely variable figure according to circumstances, since the first two factors vary not only with speed taken as an absolute, but also with awareness of the third factor. Unless handled with tranquility this equation can result in considerable stress, ulcers and even death.
Check out my blog!
If employers would shifted start times a little we wouldn't need any kind of system. Stop the bullshit sales pitch to create work for yourself. How about employers keeping only workers around for the physically dependent work and sending the rest with the worker home (especially information shufflers,ah the variety) for most of the week instead, that way they could babysit their kids instead of dumping them on the public schools they abhor so much. Just think of how much money and gas could be saved if you could work from home and didn't have to run the kids around and only went in 2 days a week(maybe). Let's not talk about risking both you and your kids lives for bean counting and senseless on-time games. The internet is large enough, do you're work and educate your kids at home.
Want to use linux to reduce gridlock? Harness it to improve telecommuting, encourage bicycling or walking, cheapen mass transit, or [somehow!] use it to alter zoning laws to encourage more mixed use space that results in fewer people having to drive to work in the first place.
In most ways, increasing road capacity by scheduling/information isn't much different than increasing capacity by adding a lane. It's great for a while, but then we see traffic again. More capacity invites more cars. Maximizing "efficient" use of roadways makes traffic jams that much worse when there is an accident because the system has got more vehicles in it.
Making it more convenient/cheaper to drive a car will always result in more cars on the road, not fewer.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
I've always found traffic reports on local radio to work well. It goes like this:
(1) Local radio says "there's a jam at such-and-such".
(2) I adjust my route in order to go directly through such-and-such.
(3) I get a clear run because by the time I get there the original problem has cleared, and everybody else has avoided the place having heard about it on the radio.
So when the major routes are too congested, it'll start telling all the people to take a back road, thus immediately congesting that "less traveled" back route.
I dunna think this is gonna work.
Traffic speed is less a factor of number of cars on a stretch of road, more of number of cars trying to make a decision. (change lanes, exit, enter)
Think automated traffic cameras at merge areas, ticket people who get out of line, race up and cut back in line. Automated systems fire directed sound when you're less than 2 carlengths from the next guy.
I think the EasyWiFi technology that they had to develop in order to get this to work is actually the cooler aspect of this project, especially since its compatible with normal WiFi hotspots.
I could see it becoming a handy addition to any Wifi setup for a mobile device.
In most metropolitan cities, ESPECIALLY in California, all local roads are hopelessly jammed during rush hour.
If you fly overhead over Sacratomato on most days, you will see tendrils of red (red tail lights) spreading rapidly all over the city between 6:45am and 8:30am, until the whole city is utterly clogged. Almost nothing is passable in this city during rush hour; by 7:30, there are no alternate paths in the city that can get you out of a traffic jam if you are, say, commuting from Elk Grove to Carmichael.
Then there are the Roseville (highway 80, 65, etc.) and West Sac 5/50 mashups - two areas (there are more but for bandwidth's sake I'll leave them out) where roughly 10 lanes of traffic join and compress into 5 or less, forcing people to lane change like crazy to get where they won't get knocked off the freeway by an offramp in their lane. Sorry, I can't leave out the Natomas mashups - I feel sorry for the fools commuting from Roseville to downtown. And you poor souls trying to get to Wal Mart off Truxel, I'm praying for you right now.
The #1 problem on the street routes are traffic lights, and then also the traffic regulators - the utterly insulting red lights that you have to wait behind to get on the freeway. I would arrange a public flogging for those who put traffic regulators on onramps and for those who don't program traffic lights to weight right-of-way more towards the heaviest traffic.
Then we can worry about planning people's routes, as by then we would have actual passable routes.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
You make some good points, one of them is called telecommuting and yes I have written about that. The problem is intelligence and wisdom is not being applied to the current systems to create efficiency because there are those that favor unnecessary profitable consumption. This was part of something I wrote a year ago, I have plenty of work right now, obviously MIT picked up on it they are on the distribution list. Which is part of the plan, as well as keeping the technology in the public domain and engineering big brother out of the system.
"an infinite player that has lost his finite mind" ~Infinite Play the Movie (it blends with reality)
It could be scantily clad unshowered nerd women with a ballpark frank tucked under a fat flap for eating later.
It's called the bicycle
Hello I am looking to purchase a Viewsat FTA receiver. Does anyone know anything about them? Also, can you recommend a good retailer to purchase one? I have been looking at this for a while but have to admit I'm kind of lost.
Washington DC. Their subway system was built about 40ish years ago, and 100 years ago Washington DC was a swamp with a few Senators. Sure, that's a special case too, but all cities are special cases. Your point about city planning 100 years ago is a fair one, but I suspect that the problem is that nobody is willing to invest in permanent mass transit without the density, and you just can't get the density without the mass transit.
That's what I mean about making changes to society. You don't have to force people's hand, but you can change the rules. You can build subways, even if they're underutilized at first. You can changing zoning, allowing for mixed use, no setbacks, smaller [or no] parking lots, etc. You can resist the demands to continue to expand the highways into the cities, instead investing that money in making it easier [and cheaper] for people to live in the city.
I do think that federal, state, and local action can make higher density living more attractive, and that doing so is essential to a sustainable existence.
P.S. Front lawns? I've got a 100ish acre front lawn... it's a park. I don't have to mow it, but I get to use it any time I want!
Support a few technologists in Washington.
And they revealed that the way to fight traffic congestion is by taking the bus or living closer to your work. I'm going to toss the piece of shit because that wasn't what I wanted to hear.
Just callin' it like I see it.
How many of you read that as "MIT Researchers Fight Grimlock with Linux"? That would be so cool...
I mean seriously, once upon a time... way back in late ninety something, if a device shipped with linux at its based, the presence of Linux on the device was as important as the application of the device itself. In modern times, pretty much everything imaginable runs Linux, so these days, having to say "QNX Device" or "Vxworks device" is more interesting since it might show a shift away from Linux.
I feel it really takes away from the merits of the researchers that have developed the extensive applications on top of Linux to make the heading anything about Linux.
As an after thought, why not also point out that they used GCC or Perl or even the libraries they used. Forget the fact that the device actually solves a problem and focus on the tools used to make it. The function isn't important... is it?