Audi's traffic light dash display

[bestclimb]

Originally Posted by aerohead

*For every dollar not spent on traffic light synchronization the US loses $62 ,in 1988 dollars.
*For every dollar spent on traffic light synchronization the US saves $62,in 1988 dollars.
*Audi would save $9.3.
*Traffic engineers could save $62.
*With traffic engineers,200-million automobiles @ 16.8 mpg.
*With 7-yr-olds designing traffic infrastructure,200-million automobiles @ 28 mpg.

I think the takeaway from this is that it does not matter how good the green light predictive system is if the traffic system is not properly timed/engineered/designed it won't help much. Yet with a decently integrated traffic design everyone benefits whether or not they have an added distraction cuing them into how fast they should drive to hit the next green.

Just timing the lights to roll along with the speed limit does quite a bit even the roads are nearing full capacity.

I too would like your source (not doubting it just sounds like it may be an interesting read/study)

[Xist]

Originally Posted by markweatherill

I saw the idea some time ago of timed traffic signals that display a countdown to the next change. That would work for everyone.

I used to complain about light timing and people told me that the Don't Walk sign and yellow lights gave me all of the information that I needed.

I can only imagine that these people drive ten over until they are one block from a red light.

For a long time, I have actually wanted something that would tell me if I could make the next light or if I needed to start slowing down.

I keep waiting to have a conversation about holding up traffic. "Uh, no, that is the purpose of the red light."

They have been gradually replacing Don't Walk signs with ones that count down. The Army tells me that I have 20/15 corrected vision, but I cannot read those numbers. A friend insisted that she could, but was not able to read street signs when I asked.

Originally Posted by tvbd56

1. Wait that's what those mirrors are for? not for make-up?
2. But wait, I have to send this one last text.

1. When I did on-line dating, I saw many pictures that girls took using their car mirrors. Seriously? You can actually see yourself in your phone, but you insist on using a mirror barely larger than your phone, and then make a duck-face, longbowman's salute, put the phone in front of your face so we can hardly tell that you do not understand smiling, and then save a screen capture instead of actually saving the picture, because everybody wants to see your signal and battery strength, etc.
2. Wait, I just received two more, and then I need to tweet my crossroads, I haven't done that for half a minute!

Aerohead, for all of the political rhetoric about making cars more efficient, I always wondered why they didn't approach that one simple idea. I just do not have any idea how to simply describe it. I guess that "red light timing" should do, but I do not have much confidence in people. If people actually could drive the speed limit and never hit a red light unless they turned, they would still speed and brake one block away.

[digital rules]

Originally Posted by bestclimb

I think the takeaway from this is that it does not matter how good the green light predictive system is if the traffic system is not properly timed/engineered/designed it won't help much.

Exactly, I haven't seen many areas that have decent sychronization in the first place. How about you guy's, is this true for you as well?

For example, Arlington County Virginia screams of how green concious they are, but their traffic lights seem to have little engineering designed to move traffic efficiently. When traffic sensors malfunction, it takes forever to address the issue, if ever.

OTOH Washington DC actually does a pretty good job with light syncing. They want to make sure drivers gain more speed between the lights, so they can feed those hungry speed cameras.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by digital rules

OTOH Washington DC actually does a pretty good job with light syncing. They want to make sure drivers gain more speed between the lights, so they can feed those hungry speed cameras.

I remember being able to ride my bike down the hill on 13th St. If you hit the first light right and pedaled as hard as you could, you could hit green lights until you lost your speed boost.

Climbing up thirteenth street, though, my goodness. I do not know how many times I looked up the street, saw the hill, and went around.

[California98Civic]

This feature will not be desirable to me until the data link that tells me how soon the light will change is also a link that allows me to order the light to change. Then, I'll want one.

[freebeard]

Basically, the story is that Audi catching up with Eugene, OR.

Green Driver

I told my son about this years ago. In five minutes he had already downloaded it to his iPhone and decided it was superior to the turn-by-turn in his SRT-8. An hour later he was already grumpy when we rolled into Springfield and it stopped working.

It isn't predictive of the lights, it's peered to the traffic-light servers that control the lights. When you can can see all the lights in town all the time, bad synching of the light will cause citizen advocacy. David Brin would call it sousveillance.

Originally Posted by Green Driver

EnLighten cities:
•Live in Portland, OR and Eugene, OR
•In beta across most of Utah and in Garland, TX
•Coming soon to Arcadia, CA
•Trials under way in other cities in California and elsewhere
•Many more locations to follow...
Benefits to cities:
Reduced driver distraction and increased safety.
•Access to low-cost anonymized traffic flow information (including point to point studies).
•Better understanding of infrastructure needs and traffic light system performance.
•Enabling future connected-vehicle applications to reduce congestion, fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
•No per-light or per-vehicle installation costs, unlike other Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) approaches.
•Leverage existing technology investment.
•Accessible public technology demonstrator and showcase benefits of the ITS infrastructure.

We shall see how Audi does with the various municipalities.