Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have attracted the attention of researchers and the general public alike as a means to alleviate traffic congestion. Recently, the maturity of wireless technology has enabled a cost-efficient way to achieve ITS by detecting vehicles using Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communications. Traditional ITS algorithms, in most cases, assume that every vehicle is observed, such as by a camera or a loop detector, but a V2I implementation would detect only those vehicles with wireless communications capability. We examine a family of transportation systems, which we will refer to as Partially Detected Intelligent Transportation Systems'. An algorithm that can act well under a small detection rate is highly desirable due to gradual penetration rates of the underlying wireless technologies such as Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology. Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques for Reinforcement Learning (RL) are suitable tools for finding such an algorithm due to utilizing varied inputs and not requiring explicit analytic understanding or modeling of the underlying system dynamics. In this paper, we report a RL algorithm for partially observable ITS based on DSRC. The performance of this system is studied under different car flows, detection rates, and topologies of the road network. Our system is able to efficiently reduce the average waiting time of vehicles at an intersection, even with a low detection rate.
Motivated by the idea to reduce deployment costs and to dynamically regulate vehicular traffic flows at intersections, inter-vehicle communications based virtual traffic lights are envisioned to replace traditional infrastructure based traffic lights. According to recent studies, virtual traffic lights are expected to increase traffic flow by up to 60 . Yet, those studies were based on the assumption of a perfectly reliable communication, i.e., notification messages which signal a traffic light were always received by vehicles located within a certain distance to the sender. Hence, effects such as signal fading or non-line-of-sight conditions due to buildings were neglected. Such effects, however, can have a negative impact on the dissemination of the notification messages. This poster paper therefore studies whether these effects lead to significantly larger dissemination delays or not, and whether this increase is crucial for the feasibility of virtual traffic lights. According to the results of this study, the delay is not significantly larger, and virtual traffic lights seem to be feasible under such challenging conditions. Vehicles equipped with intelligent systems designed to prevent accidents, such as collision warning systems (CWSs) or lane-keeping assistance (LKA), are now on the market. The next step in reducing road accidents is to coordinate such vehicles in advance not only to avoid collisions but to improve traffic flow as well. To this end, vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications are essential to properly manage traffic situations. This paper describes the AUTOPIA approach toward an intelligent traffic management system based on V2I communications. A fuzzy-based control algorithm that takes into account each vehicle's safe and comfortable distance and speed adjustment for collision avoidance and better traffic flow has been developed. The proposed solution was validated by an IEEE-802.11p-based communications study. The entire system showed good performance in testing in real-world scenarios, first by computer simulation and then with real vehicles. A method for a reporting behavior at optimal costs of single vehicles (FCD: floating car data) in road networks with the aim of a high quality of traffic state recognition is presented. It is shown that based on minimum two FCD messages the substantial information of a typical traffic incident in a traffic center can be recognized. The two relevant periods of such an obstruction of traffic in road networks are the periods, in which either a travel time increase takes place due to congestion emergence or a travel time decrease because of congestion dissolution. A statistic analysis already shows the high quality of the reconstruction of the actual travel times in the net with 1.5 equipped FCD vehicles and a reduction of the FCD message sending of the vehicles by suppression of redundant incident information. Incidents with at least 20 min duration can be recognized with a probability of 65 with an penetration rate of 1.5 FCD vehicles within the whole amount of vehicles, whereby the FCD vehicles send only in each incident case two messages per event. Traffic lights used in transportation road networks have not undergone much technological advancement since their first installation in the early 1890's. The use of traffic lights still pose limitations, including very high operation and maintenance costs and limited adaptability to live traffic conditions. Virtual Traffic Lights (VTL) is a relatively novel concept based primarily on vehicle-to-vehicle communication and thus allowing removing costly traffic light installations. However, not much research has been done on the safety of these systems. This paper objective is to conduct a preliminary safety analysis of a VTL system and provide mitigation strategies for the highest safety threats. The VTL hazards identification, risk assessment, and proposed mitigation measures in this research, albeit incomplete, provide a working template for future research, development expansion and reasonable arguments for VTL system implementation. A new technology known as Virtual Traffic Lights (VTL) was recently proposed as a self-organizing new paradigm for traffic management. This new technology uses the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications as its premise. VTL can revolutionize traffic management in urban areas as it can substantially reduce commute time of urban workers, increase productivity, and lead to a greener environment. In a VTL environment, vehicles self-organize to elect a leader which serves as a virtual traffic light to decide the right of way at that intersection, thus replacing the current physical traffic lights. Implementing VTL technology with partial penetration, however, is an outstanding issue that needs to be addressed. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a co-existence model whereby VTL equipped vehicles can co-exist with vehicles that do not have VTL. Simulation results show that the transition model proposed here could provide drivers with strong incentives to adopt the VTL technology.  We examine the network performance of algorithms for self-organized traffic management. In particular, we focus on wireless network-ing between cars. One of many technologies that make road traffic safer and more efficient is the Virtual Traffic Light(VTL) system,which is able to coordinate the traffic flow at intersections without the need for physical lights. VTL takes a leading vehicle at an inter-section and uses it to control the traffic lights. We developed algorithms for leader election and traffic light computation in realistic ve-hicular networking scenarios. Our key contribution is the extension of this algorithm to support arbitrary intersection layouts. We in-vestigated the proposal in synthetic and realistic scenarios. The results show that, overall, VTLs use network resources efficiently andpositively influences driving experience. It performs better than stationary traffic lights for a low to medium network load. We alsoidentify potential optimizations to deal with high network load and to improve fairness.  Prior work has shown that a biologically inspired approach can solve some of the fundamental transportation problems in urban areas. As one instance of this approach, it was shown that vehicles equipped with dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) radios can manage traffic in urban areas in a completely self-organized manner similar to self-organizing biological systems (e.g., ants, birds, and fish). This scheme is known as virtual traffic lights, and its success is enabled by the design of local rules which allow vehicles approaching an intersection to resolve the ensuing conflict in a seamless and self-organized manner without the need for any infrastructure. One important safety issue in urban traffic is how to manage the presence of emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire trucks. In this article, it is shown that by designing a different set of local rules, one can give priority to emergency vehicles at every intersection, thus expediting their response times. Considering that the transport sector is responsible for an increasingly important share of current environmental problems, we look at Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) as a feasible means of helping in solving this issue. In particular, we evaluate the impact in terms of Carbon Dioxide (CO2)emissions of Virtual Traffic Light (VTL), which is a recently proposed infrastructureless traffic control system solely based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication. Our evaluation uses a real-city scenario in a complex simulation framework, involving microscopic traffic, wireless communication, and emission models. Compared with an approximation of the physical traffic light system deployed in the city, our results show a significant reduction on CO2 emissions when using VTLs, reaching nearly 20 under high-density traffic. Virtual Traffic Lights (VTL) is a recently proposed self-organizing traffic control scheme that has the potential to mitigate traffic congestion in urban areas. This paper reports a prototype design effort on Virtual Traffic Lights using Android-based smartphones. The experiments performed show the feasibility of implementing VTL using smartphones' WiFi devices. The correct and prompt definition of priorities at intersections is one of the key issues for vehicular safety and efficient traffic management. Traffic lights currently control only a limited number of intersections and increasing their number is clearly infeasible due to the high costs of deployment and maintenance. A new solution will be possible in a near future, when vehicles will be equipped with wireless technologies. Their capability of communicating and coordinating to each other will create the conditions for the implementation of a virtual traffic light (VTL) architecture, where priorities are autonomously defined by the involved vehicles. With this scenario in mind, we describe a novel VTL algorithm aiming at defining the priorities of the intersections in a distributed and controlled way. Besides the algorithm description, the main related issues are thoroughly discussed. In addition, a real implementation is detailed and the validation of the algorithm is provided. The testbed, based on the IEEEź802.11p short range wireless technology, has been reproduced in a controlled laboratory environment and in a field trial with equipped vehicles. Traffic congestion is a daunting problem that is affecting the daily lives of billions of people across the world. Recently, a promising new traffic control scheme known as Virtual Traffic Lights (VTL) has been proposed for mitigating traffic congestion. VTL is an infrastructure free traffic control scheme that leverages the presence of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications. Such infrastructure free scheme has several benefits, such as alleviating traffic congestion; reducing the large cost of traffic lights and traffic control systems; reducing carbon emission, etc. This paper reports a DSRC-based prototype design effort on VTL using Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology. The experiments performed show the feasibility of implementing VTL with DSRC technology. Preliminary results of the field tests conducted in Pittsburgh with vehicles using VTL equipment indicate that VTL is capable of coordinating traffic at intersections and reducing the commute time of people. Virtual traffic lights (VTL) is a new technology that holds the promise of revolutionizing traffic control in urban areas. The original VTL idea was based on 100 percent penetration of VTL technology. In this article, contrary to conventional wisdom, it is shown that 100 percent penetration is not a necessary condition for deploying VTL technology as it can be implemented with partial or low levels of penetration. Furthermore, based on game-theoretic arguments, it is shown that the adoption of VTL technology can be accelerated by providing incentives to vehicles equipped with VTL technology.