While we are big fans of the Smart Stop Lights, see Smart Stop Lights Saving Time, Emissions and Waste, MIT also recently put forth a thesis of removing stop lights.  The study “Revisiting Street Intersections Using Slot-Based Systems  argues that traffic on existing streets and roadways could be increased by more than double through a slot based system.

Cars Talk To Each Other

Vehicles are now being built today that feature vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) communication.  The MIT study thesis is that enabling vehicles to communicate with each other particularly at 4-way intersections will enable more traffic to safely flow and speed up travel times.  This would also reduce emissions from idling, longer travel times and save drivers time.  Auto electronics parts maker Harman recently announced a partnership with chip maker NXP through which it will demonstrate its “LIVS Connected Car Compute Platform.”  These actions are important to the development of these types of traffic and emission solutions

With technology now being applied to improve traffic flow where stop lights can not be avoided and to also potentially eliminate stop lights in other locations, Bold Impact is likely to follow.

For more read, ComputerWorld’s March 2016 story by Lucas Mearian