Communications of the ACM
An App That Could Stop Traffic
The Greenway app is designed to prevent traffic by using software to reserve spots for drivers along their routes.
Credit: Greenway
German researchers have developed Greenway, a Windows phone application designed to help people avoid traffic jams and get drivers from one point to another in the shortest amount of time.
Greenway's developers hope to prevent traffic jams from happening altogether by using software to predict where drivers are going. The app provides a standard shortest route and a traffic-optimized Greenway route, as well as the approximate amount of time and fuel it would take to reach the destination using each route. The software can simulate up to 50,000 cars, and the results show that, on average, cars taking Greenway routes make it to their destination twice as fast and use up to 20 percent less fuel, according to researcher Christian Bruggemann.
He speculates that for Greenway to function optimally, about 10 percent of drivers in a city would have to have it running. "Using a predictor like in the Greenway system, even if it's not perfect, will still give a significant leap forward compared with using nothing," notes Temple University professor Benjamin Seibold.
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