Increasing Intelligence in Inter-Vehicle Communications to Reduce Traffic Congestions: Experiments in Urban and Highway Environments

PLoS One. 2016 Aug 15;11(8):e0159110. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159110. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) rely on Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC) to streamline the operation of vehicles by managing vehicle traffic, assisting drivers with safety and sharing information, as well as providing appropriate services for passengers. Traffic congestion is an urban mobility problem, which causes stress to drivers and economic losses. In this context, this work proposes a solution for the detection, dissemination and control of congested roads based on inter-vehicle communication, called INCIDEnT. The main goal of the proposed solution is to reduce the average trip time, CO emissions and fuel consumption by allowing motorists to avoid congested roads. The simulation results show that our proposed solution leads to short delays and a low overhead. Moreover, it is efficient with regard to the coverage of the event and the distance to which the information can be propagated. The findings of the investigation show that the proposed solution leads to (i) high hit rate in the classification of the level of congestion, (ii) a reduction in average trip time, (iii) a reduction in fuel consumption, and (iv) reduced CO emissions.

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollution / prevention & control
  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Automobiles*
  • Cities*
  • Communication*
  • Vehicle Emissions / prevention & control

Substances

  • Vehicle Emissions

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the grants #2015/11536-4 and #2015/18898-9, Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). Geraldo P. R. Filho would like to acknowledge the financial support granted by FAPESP (process 2014/06330-5) in his doctoral research. Jó Ueyama would like to thank FAPESP and Office of Naval Research Global for funding part of his research project. Daniel L. Guidoni would like to thank CNPq and FAPEMIG. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.