BMW advocating for smarter traffic lights abroad and in U.S.

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by tjts1

Thats retarded.

...nah, it seems to work OK for the Indianapolis, Talladega and NASCAR raceways...as well as for the cities of Boston and Phoenix, to name a few existing examples.

...it's just a spoke and hub arrangement.

[Peter7307]

Originally Posted by mrk

Public transport (buses) and cars have different requeriments:
In a car, you would prefer that traffic lights go green as you approach, "green waves" go with the traffic flow and once you are in a "green wave" you don't stop - unless you are too slow and a "red wave" catches you.
In a bus, since it has to stop constantly, you would miss those "waves" all the time... then if you want to favour public transport (better overall FE!!) those "green waves" go against traffic, but it is totally inconvenient for cars...
Maximum overall efficency is not as easy as it seems

-- My brother gave me this explanation once, he is a road engineer --

I agree a bus constantly stopping would catch different wave patterns than a car which is not stopping but the bus would still catch some although they would be different waves from the cars.

In other words one car would catch a green wave all the way and the bus having to stop would have the wave go on without it.

The bus would discharge some passengers , collect others and go again catching the next wave until it was required to stop again and repeat the process.

Given the volume of exhaust emissions saved by keeping the cars constantly moving this would outweigh the inconvenience of having the bus out of synch with the waves.

Pete.

[jamesqf]

How about going a bit further? Every traffic light broadcasts its timing - X seconds until I turn red - and a GPS-like receiver in the car indicates what speed to drive to catch the green. If you have the lights with cameras sensors, it could even try figuring out how many cars are waiting...

[order99]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

This is good to see an automaker pushing this topic.

Of course, they're absolutely right that better traffic light timing saves fuel... but it doesn't change the vehicle's government fuel economy ratings. Which makes me wonder...

Aside from the PR, what incentive does the company have for pursuing this?

Exactly that. Good PR, and it costs them nothing at all to suggest. But even so, good advice!

[cfg83]

Old Tele man -

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...nah, it seems to work OK for the
Indianapolis, Talladega and NASCAR raceways...as well as for the cities of Boston and Phoenix, to name a few existing examples.

...it's just a spoke and hub arrangement.

I wish I had a picture, but Los Angeles' urban planners had a proposal for continuous "parkways" (back in the 1930's, I think). I am pretty sure that there were no left turns (3 rights make a left). When you came to an intersection, you drove over or under a bridge. The far right lanes were "right turn only" lanes for merging into the flow of traffic. The right hand turn-curves would cost you the four corner lots of the intersection.

CarloSW2