Autonomous vehicles key to ‘white phase’ traffic flow efficiency

This is the claim of researchers at North Carolina State University (NC State) who believe the presence more autonomous vehicles would shorten waiting times for everyone. The team’s findings are detailed in Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering.

Earlier work at NC State showed that a fourth white phase traffic signal would use the computing power of autonomous vehicles (AVs) to expedite traffic at intersections

In a statement, Ali Hajbabaie, corresponding author and associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State, said: “We had not yet incorporated what this concept would mean for pedestrians. We’ve now expanded our computational modelling to account for foot traffic, and the results are extremely promising for both pedestrians and vehicles.”

The white phase concept makes use of AVs’ ability to communicate wirelessly with each other and the computers that control the traffic signals.

The new white light would indicate to human drivers that they should follow the car in front of them, a manoeuvre activated when enough AVs are approaching the intersection.