An opposite congestion mitigation approach - avoid causing the traffic jam rather than avoiding a traffic jam already caused.
Honda Motor Company today announced a computer program that prompts a driver to change behavior if it has the potential to cause traffic jams. Honda knows what traffic engineers know and commuters endure – the acceleration and deceleration behavior of one vehicle influences the traffic pattern of trailing vehicles and can trigger the traffic jams. (Nothing about road hogging SUV driver’s whose super-sized vehicles prevent trailing car drivers from judging and responding to traffic ahead since all the driver of the car behind can see is the SUV driver talking or texting on his cell phone until he jams on his brakes.)
The Honda traffic jam antidote is intriguing since it is the opposite approach used by virtually all other congestion work at automakers and highway departments. They use information to help the driver avoid existing traffic jam congestion based on current information.
Working with the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo, Honda conducted experimental testing of the system uses the technology to detect the potential of driver behavior to cause traffic jams. The traffic jam system provides the driver with a color-coded display through the on-board terminal, to encourage smooth driving which will help alleviate the intensity of acceleration and deceleration by trailing vehicles, thereby helping to prevent or minimize the occurrence of vehicle congestion.
The test results showed the system helped increase the average speed by approximately 23% and improved fuel efficiency by approximately 8% of trailing vehicles. It would of course take a large number of vehicles fitted with the traffic jam preventer to produce a real world effect.
Honda will begin the first public-road testing of the technology in Italy and Indonesia in May and July of this year, respectively, to verify the effectiveness of the technology in minimizing vehicle congestion. Honda says it will ultimately bring the technology to market.
Honda claims the positive effect on minimizing congestion and the resulting fuel efficiency improvement can be further increased by connecting the on-board terminals to cloud servers to activate the Adaptive Cruise Control system at the right time to maintain a constant distance between vehicles at the most appropriate interval.
