Communications of the ACM
Smart Transportation Networks Drive Gains
Credit: Panupong Nuchchanar
Over the last few decades, urban commutes have emerged as a genuine nightmare. In the U.S., motorists in the Washington, D.C. area waste an average of 67 hours a year stuck in traffic, while drivers in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area squander 61 hours a year that way, according to a Bloomberg and Texas A&M Transportation Institute report. Meanwhile, in cities such as Mumbai, Beijing, and Sao Paulo, commutes can stretch to several hours per day and traffic backups can extend more than 100 miles (160 kilometers).
The result? Wasted time and fuel, higher levels of pollution, frayed nerves, safety concerns, and inefficiencies that rock the foundation of modern economies. A study by Texas A&M University found that in the U.S. alone, $27 billion worth of time and fuel was wasted in 2011 as a consequence of all traffic-related delays, resulting in economic loss exceeding $121 billion. In fact, despite telecommuting, home offices, and flexible work hours, the problem is growing worse. "We are facing extremely serious obstacles and a growing list of problems, says Dominique Bonte, a vice president and practice director at market research firm ABI Research.
Comments
Guenter Jantzen
I would like to point out that holding on signs and other infrastructure ("road furniture") can
help to avoid some security problems. You can secure this "furniture" relatively easy, so that dangerous accidents can be avoided. (green lights always for one street only, slow frequencies of changing light phases, etc.) Embed the furniture base layer in hardware or in a secure software core and couple the API only loosely with smarter and sophisticated layers. The worst thing that can happen are traffic jams. In case of emergency it should be possible to fallback into a pure furniture solution on basis of isolated crossways.
In my opininion it should be a general architecture approach to "conserve core processes" instead of destroying all and starting from scratch always again. This are principles of organic growth. The most impressive examples can be found in biology. We human beings share so much with *all* other animals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitated_variation
Similiar ideas not for securing whole applications but their data, can be found here
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/google-boss-warns-forgotten-century-email-photos-vint-cerf
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