(ORDO NEWS) — An additional, white traffic light will signal “act like the vehicle in front”.
Simulation of driving through the intersection showed that with the simultaneous movement of conventional and unmanned vehicles, such a signal noticeably speeds up traffic.
Transportation specialists from the University of North Carolina (USA) simulated traffic on roads with a large number of unmanned vehicles, showing that the addition of traffic lights with a fourth signal will significantly reduce downtime at intersections and fuel costs.
The concept of a fourth (white) signal was first announced in 2020. It is understood that the existing signals will retain their current values: red – “no movement”, yellow – “get ready”, green – “movement is allowed”.
White will inform the driver “follow the vehicle in front”: drive if he is driving, or stop if he is standing.
The idea is based on the expectation that drones will be able to communicate with each other and distribute the order of traffic at intersections more efficiently than traffic lights.
In the new work, the scientists modeled the movement through the intersection with the simultaneous participation of cars with drivers, as well as unmanned vehicles, with the calculations of the order of passage distributed between them.
In different versions, standard traffic lights or with an additional white signal were used in the calculations.
It turned out that the more drones on the road, the more noticeable the reduction in time at the intersection becomes, and in the presence of a white phase of the traffic light, this gain becomes even more significant.
So, if drones account for 10 percent of road users, delays are reduced by only three percent. And if their number reaches 30 percent, the gain already exceeds 10 percent.
“The simulation showed several important things at once,” said Professor Hadjabaye. – Firstly, drones improve traffic, regardless of the presence of a white phase of a traffic light.
Secondly, in the presence of drones, the white phase optimizes movement even more. Reducing stops reduces unnecessary fuel costs.
Thirdly, the greater the share of transport is driven by drones, the faster the traffic at intersections with the white phase of traffic lights and the more noticeable the fuel savings.”
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