Can a GPS Network Help Drivers Avoid Traffic Jams?
New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is conducting a traffic study to see if a GPS network can be used to spot traffic jams. A blog entry on Engadget raises an interesting question about what happens if you have a working GPS network with many connected drivers and all the drivers suddenly head towards the less congested roads:
A $1.3 million study by New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (funded by federal and state highway officials) links GPS data from participating vehicles into a central database and spits back data on traffic patterns. A driver with the right equipment gets realtime warnings if he's about to enter a congested zone, and can then route around it. Sounds great, but we can’t help but wonder: if everyone's connected, and they all follow the same prompts to avoid congestion, won't the traffic just hit them all when they adjust their route -- and again, when they swerve to avoid the jam they've just created?
