A rising population demands an upgrade to the infrastructure of towns and cities, failing which congestion and traffic jams become unavoidable. The situation is improved with efficient allocation of resources and infrastructure, usually achieved with the help of computer simulations. Through simulations, one can predict the outcome of complex situations which allows us to implement the best solution always. Road transportation depends on efficiently moving of vehicles between intersections. In India, however, we are more accustomed to chaotic traffic intersections, where vehicles don’t queue one behind the other, but tend to fill in any available space along the width of the road. Cars take up the majority of space and motorcycles fill in any space available beside it. Once the signal turns green, vehicles move in groups each containing one car and several motorcycles. Researchers from IISc, Bengaluru, IIT Kharaghpur and Tejas Networks, Bengaluru have developed a computer simulation for a scenario just like this. Using the simulation, the researchers successfully simulate such a disorganized traffic movement and used to make predictions in case of changes. The simulations could be the ideal tool to develop efficient solutions to our traffic woes as it allows us to implement several solutions on the virtual platform without any infrastructure cost, until we find the best solution.
Read time: 1 min27 Jul 2017