Autonomous Intersection Management: Traffic Control for the Future

Traffic isn't a function of road space. The true throughput of roads is immense when utilized by better drivers (one extreme example: ▶ this video ). A lot of traffic is caused by bad human drivers: accidents (and associated rubbernecking), shockwaves, running red lights, double parking, circling around looking for parking. Additionally entire additional lanes of traffic (for cars or personal mobility vehicles) will be available when streetside parking isn't necessary. Personally I look forward to the possibilities of turning all that unecessary parking space into something useful ("we’re the Saudi Arabia of developable land in cities").

> (Well, maybe one more option came to my mind that might actually help. If the autonomous cars would be able to increase the capacity of crossroads by somehow communicating with each others like this: ▶ this video ) How do cyclists and people walking handle that type of intersection?

> I can't help but think about how much this would alleviate traffic congestion Especially given that I do not see how self driving cars could decrease traffic congestion problems. A self driving car takes as much space as a "regular car", so only ways I can imagine autonomous cars reducing traffic are: 1. People ride less with cars. 2. People share rides more. 3. Autonomous cars are significantly more efficient finding free parking spaces, so they reduce the amount of cars looking for a free parking spot. 4. They do not need to be parked, so parking space is given to moving cars (and this actually helps, not increases, congestion). 5. Autonomous cars can drive in less space and/or are smaller. Of course, any of these claims being wrong attribute to increased congestion due to autonomous cars. And to be honest, I find it unlikely that any of those claims would be correct in the sense that it would materially reduce the congestion problems. (Well, maybe one more option came to my mind that might actually help. If the autonomous cars would be able to increase the capacity of crossroads by somehow communicating with each others like this: ▶ this video )

> Self-driving cars ... could change this equation by intelligently routing cars around bottlenecks and avoiding the neighborhood entirely Self-driving cars can do even better than that - they can eliminate the "stopping" nature of the intersection entirely. If the self-driving cars are able to determine the position and speed of other cars approaching the intersection, you can just have the traffic streams pass right through each other. [1] [1] Autonomous Intersection Management: Traffic Control for the Future ▶ this video

It's very likely that once self-driving cars reach a certain penetration, we'll see continuous-flow intersections where no human driver would dare try and cross. ▶ this video