Solving traffic jams with maths

[JMH]

Make the traffic control the lights, instead of the other way around

A Swiss traffic management and transport economics expert believes a combination of queue management and computing can help solve the gridlock that plagues the modern city.
Dr Dirk Helbing of ETH Zurich, a professor of sociology specializing in modeling and simulation, says “self organizing” traffic control systems, using massively parallel, decentralized control, are needed to avoid gridlocks. The problem, he told Tages Anzeiger (in German) is the inflexibility of current traffic control systems.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/14/traffic_control_with_maths/

 

[Temmu]

yes.
decades ago, i saw a cool demo of how 1 person stepping on the brakes (not even stopping) caused a huge traffic jam.
it stemmed from the 1 second reaction time to step back on the accelerator.
multiply that by 1.37 googlezillion cars on the freeway, a voila'! instant traffic jam.

i wish cities would do something like that article says.