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MIT Study Shows Stop Lights Won't Be Necessary In The Future (computerworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the adopting-efficient-infrastructure dept.

Lucas123 writes: An MIT [Senseable City Lab] study based on mathematical modeling demonstrated a likely scenario in which high-tech vehicles, using sensors to remain at a safe distance from each other as they move through a four-way intersection, can eliminate the need for traffic lights in the future. By removing the waits caused by traffic lights, these so-called Slot-based Intersections speed-up traffic flow.The study claims this kind of traffic-light-free transportation design, if it ever arrives, could allow twice as much traffic to use existing roads.

4 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Roundabouts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What would be the comparative advantage with respect to a roundabout?

    I know they are not very popular in the US, but they can be very efficient, and prevent the frustration of waiting at busy intersection (especially if going in the non-popular direction).

    1. Re:Roundabouts? by Intron · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They are definitely better, especially when more than 2 roads come into an intersection.

      --
      Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  2. What about pedestrians? by cmeans · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seems like they still need to play a part in any scenario with or without traffic lights. Dropping traffic lights may be fine for autonomous vehicles, but that also means that people will just walk when they want to, which'll make cars stop to let them pass. Perfectly fine when there's few pedestrians, but when there's a lot, the automobile traffic will totally come to a half if no one is stopping people from walking into the street.

    --
    Give a hand, not a hand-out.
  3. Re:NOT SAFE! by William+Baric · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Like pretty much everybody, I never look at what's ahead when in a bus. The bus stop and go, and I just don't care. It doesn't "damage" myself. Also, my parents never said "whoa" and "go" to signal me anything when I was a kid.

    Sorry, but your comment is idiotic.