This is where powerful computers can and should help. Everytime I am stuck in a traffic jam or hit five consecutive red lights, I wonder whether there is no way to use the equivalent of some Earth Simulator to simulate the driving habits on a busy highway. When, how, which, where cars get on the highway, where do they go? What does is take to avoid traffic jams. In the same vein they could try and simulate other alternative ways of transportation, like the trains, automactic lanes etc.. Why not simulate a city with all its transportation system. They could also add some external variables like the cost, the lost time and impact on the environment. They could first use some kind of high in the sky observation post equipped with camerasabove the city to get the initial raw data and then integrate the data in models and simulate what changes in our modes of transportation are more efficient and acceptable. Sometimes I think that the auto industry is so powerful that they would not allow anything that would diminish the use of individual cars.
Slashdot Mirror
This is where powerful computers can and should help. Everytime I am stuck in a traffic jam or hit five consecutive red lights, I wonder whether there is no way to use the equivalent of some Earth Simulator to simulate the driving habits on a busy highway. When, how, which, where cars get on the highway, where do they go? What does is take to avoid traffic jams. In the same vein they could try and simulate other alternative ways of transportation, like the trains, automactic lanes etc.. Why not simulate a city with all its transportation system. They could also add some external variables like the cost, the lost time and impact on the environment. They could first use some kind of high in the sky observation post equipped with camerasabove the city to get the initial raw data and then integrate the data in models and simulate what changes in our modes of transportation are more efficient and acceptable. Sometimes I think that the auto industry is so powerful that they would not allow anything that would diminish the use of individual cars.