UPS Using Software To Eliminate Left Turns

cybermage writes "The NY Times has a story about UPS using software to dramatically reduce the number of left turns their drivers take. With a fleet of vehicles their size, the time and money saved by pre-planning routes that try to eliminate left turns means big savings." Some CS major probably figured this out instead of traveling salesman.

I have a solution.

[suso (153703)]

Three rights make a left. Ok, were's my check?

Re:I have a solution.

[calebt3 (1098475)]

And two Wrights make an airplane.

Re:I have a solution.

[LordSkippy (140884)]

Don't forget the Nixonian Theorem:

If two wrongs don't make a right, try a third.

Re:I have a solution.

[BobGregg (89162)]

Actually the original punch line is, "Two Wongs don't make a white", which for some reason my Chinese wife finds endlessly amusing...

Re:I have a solution.

[BobGregg (89162)]

Bzzzt.... in fact, she's the one who told me the joke (and has repeated it to her friends often). Thanks for playing, though.

Re:I have a solution.

[by Anonymous Coward]

You can take a look at the Wikipedia information on the origin of the quotation:
"Calwell's remark in Parliament in 1947 that 'Two Wongs don't make a White' is widely quoted. The remark was intended as a joke, being a reference to a Chinese resident called Wong who was wrongly threatened with deportation, and a Liberal MP, Sir Thomas White. Today the remark is seen as evidence that Calwell was a racist."
[see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Calwell [wikipedia.org] ]

Re:

[SiO2 (124860)]

You've obviously driven in New Jersey.

SiO2

Re:I have a solution.

[operagost (62405)]

New Jersey: All the corruption of New York government, without the ingenuity.

Re:I have a solution.

[CastrTroy (595695)]

That only works if your city is a grid. The town that I grew up in was not laid out in a grid, and hence, if you took 3 rights, you may not end up doing a left turn. There was even one street that intersected with itself. If you go on that street and keep on turning right, you'll be stuck in an infinite loop.

Re:I have a solution.

[Total_Wimp (564548)]

We shouldn't need a private-sector solution. The government should be designing cites with far fewer left turns. Thank god for the Republicans. Their tireless efforts to turn our country to the right will not be forgotten.
 

Re:I have a solution.

[TrekkieGod (627867)]

We shouldn't need a private-sector solution. The government should be designing cites with far fewer left turns.

I know you're joking, but Brasilia [aboutbrasilia.com] was originally designed like that. The idea wasn't to eliminate the left wing (heh, heh...the city was also designed in a shape that resembles an airplane or bird from an aerial view, depending on who you ask), but to make traffic lights unnecessary. Didn't quite scale as the city grew, and there are traffic lights now, but the idea was awesome...

I live in the UK

[Morosoph (693565)]

You insensitive clod!

No turns on red in the UK

[mccalli (323026)]

In case people don't know why the parent made that post - you can't make any sort of turn on red in the UK. Red means stop, and stop is what it means. No wiggle room.

I remember driving in San Francisco, my first time driving in the US. I only got caught the once being beeped because I'd just stopped at red and didn't turn right although it was clear, but my other local transgression was a lot worse. We came up to some flashing red lights - I had no idea what they were for. There was one car in front of us before the lights, it stopped for a while and then went. I thought "ah ha - flashing red means stop and go if clear".

It doesn't. It means "tram coming". I found this out at the end of the week we stayed there, suddenly realising I'd spent the entire week running red lights against trams...

Cheers,
Ian

Re:No turns on red in the UK

[jimicus (737525)]

Yes, and we drive on the left in the UK. Which means that the turn which requires you to wait for a gap in traffic in two directions rather than just one is the right turn, not the left turn.

Re:

[DaggertipX (547165)]

There have been a few roundabouts built recently in various areas around where I live in Utah... no one seems to know what to do when they get to them. It's a new enough concept around here that I suppose it will take a few years for people to adjust.

Re:No turns on red in the UK

[Firethorn (177587)]

Single flashing red light is the same as a stop sign. Single flashing yellow is caution. This most commonly involves malfunctioning stop lights, though I've also seen them around schools and some other special areas where they want to be a little more obvious. Flashing yellow light with 'school zone' sign and a speed limit means that the lower speed limit is in effect while the light is flashing.

Two horizontal red lights flashing alternately and various train crossing signs = stop, train is coming or passing.

Re:

[PinkyDead (862370)]

100% agree. If these silly Americans would only learn to drive on the correct side of the road, then they wouldn't have this problem.

Re:I live in the UK

[Hoi Polloi (522990)]

Based on a lifetime's driving in the Boston Mass area I can assure you that few Americans know how to drive safely in this country either. I think the rule is, just close your eyes, pick up your cell phone and hit the gas.

Re:I live in the UK

[enharmonix (988983)]

Of course. There are 60,000,000 people in the UK.

...which, if I'm not mistaken, is roughly the number of times the "insensitive clod" joke has been made on slashdot...

And this is all because

[zappepcs (820751)]

NASCAR turned them down on a discount ad deal....

Circle....

[ZiakII (829432)]

If they enter a circle/roundabout do they get stuck in an infinite loop?

Re:

[sqldr (838964)]

Actually, originally, more people drove on the left than the right. Many countries switched later on, and saw an increase in accident rates due to the majority of drivers having a dominant right eye:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_on_the_left_or_right#Myths_and_miscellaneous_facts [wikipedia.org]

Do you live in the deep south or west of the US?

[blueZ3 (744446)]

In the northeastern states, roundabouts are quite common. In fact, in New Hampshire, I know of at least two places where two state routes (these two-lane roads would be considered "major" highways only in N.H.) have roundabouts as the "interchange"

Hemispatial neglect

[tosh1979 (909809)]

Who's idea was this? Derek Zoolander's?

Michigan is far ahead of the curve

[east coast (590680)]

Left! [wikipedia.org]

Heard this before

[ggeens (53767)]

Last year, one of my coworkers told me the same story.

He also said he knew a place that was virtually unreachable unless you took a left turn. It was not uncommon to see a UPS truck circle around the place a few times before they arrived.

In Related News..

[Spritzer (950539)]

...it seems FedEx has decided to cut costs simply by not delivering packages.

Said FedEx spokesman Dewey Shippit, "We've found that there is a significant savings in randomly tossing packages into a large warehouse and not delivering them. The cost of delivering those packages far exceeds the cost of repeatedly 'issuing a trace' to locate the missing item."

Stop lights are better

[Thelasko (1196535)]

I generally plan my routes to avoid left turns. I have since I first learned to drive. However, if I must make a left turn, I find making it at a stop light with a turn lane is much faster, safer and easier than making a left turn without a light on a busy street. Stop lights also save more time and energy than stop signs. Maybe UPS should consider that next.

Both UPS and Fedex's software can do this

[celnick (78658)]

The routing software used by UPS, Fedex and USPS all can be used to minimize different turning directions. I used to work at Fedex home delivery and this would be a prime parameter for drivers with larger trucks. The software also can plot you to specific points during the day, like avoiding downtown during rush hour. Although it can minimize left turns, it sometimes makes you drive in circles to do so, makes you go far out of the way, down little streets (since like GPS it doesn't really know any better).

The article is actually about how UPS is going to lessen global warming or some such silly thing like that. They aren't, the increased distance the route can plot makes you drive as long (it doesn't truly matter if your diesel truck is idling at a light or driving in a circle). It is, however, easier for a driver to make less left turns and probably has some sort of psychological effect on other drivers to not see them in the left lane.

"Last year, according to Heather Robinson, a U.P.S. spokeswoman, the software helped the company shave 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, which has resulted in savings of roughly three million gallons of gas and has reduced CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons."

The software is excellent, it makes great routes, can cut down on any number of hassles, but seriously the main point is NOT to eliminate left turns. The software is meant to get more packages out, more quickly, to more people, with less drivers, and more profit.

Silly NY Times writers.

Re:

[Bazman (4849)]

I remember using Arc/Info Version 4 in about 1990 and its routing software let you specify a 'turn impedance' at every node (junction), so that going from arc id 2 to arc id 4 would add a weight of 2.5, and going from arc id 2 to arc id 6 would add a weight of 5.6, or whatever. Each arc also has a weight for the length of time it takes to go along it, and then you just did your usual solve for minimum weight. We did this for ambulance travel times.

Nice to see Fedex have dragged themselves into the 90s.

Nice idea, but...

[MightyPez (734706)]

I drove for UPS and will say I hope it works out. Any way to shave precious seconds off a delivery are welcomed.

However, having used the DIAD IV system, I can't see it working out too well. If you're not familiar with it, DIAD is the little brown LCD screen you sign whenyou get a package and has all the stops a driver makes in his day organized in an order that is suppose to be the easiest and quickest. The problem is very rarely is it done right. So you'll be driving on 4th, and the next stop will be on the same end of 3rd. The problem is 3rd is a one way and if you turn on it you'll be hitting oncoming traffic. So you either need to swing around the block (wasteful use of time) or deliver it later via a different route.

Fortunately nobody with half a brain relies on DIAD for their route info. A driver with enough experience will know their route and what stops to make when.

With that being said, it was easily the worst job I ever had. I ran all day and barely ate. In a 2-3 week period I lost 15 pounds.

Re:Nice idea, but...

[timeOday (582209)]

I would assume these systems get more accurate over time as more people use routing data.

Also, besides simply waiting for the technology to mature, delivery companies in particular are in the perfect position to gather valuable routing data (instead of just taking whatever Navteq gives them). Using the GPS on their vehicles, they should be tracking how long it takes to traverse each stretch of road and each intersection or turn, all depending on the day of week, time of day, etc. A simple rule such as "prefer right turns at all intersections" is an OK start, but it could get so much more detailed.

In other news ...

[belthize (990217)]

      Congress was working up a bill that would retrofit all the roads in the
US so we're either straight or turned right. The bill was dropped when
they discovered the principle designer, MC Escher had pased away and nobody
else was capable of drawing them.

Belthize

Not all left turns are created equal

[sm62704 (957197)]

I'm a wierdo [slashdot.org], but of course if I wasn't I wouldn't be on slashdot. Nerds aren't exactly "normal" now are we? At any rate, at three bucks per gallon I've been driving in such a manner to minimize my gas useage. It annoys my passengers, while I'm annoyed at the dimwits who race to the next red light, only to be sitting there making me stop at a green light.

I found I wasn't unique, there is actually a name for people like me - "hypermilers". The EPA estimate on my large car (I'm not even a radical hypermiler) is 35 mpg on th ehighway, I can get 36 if I do 50MPH (which REALLY pisses people off, even though I stay in the right lane).

Any way, left turns onto a highway do, indeed, use gas, particularly if there's heavy traffic. But at an intersection, particularly with a left turn arrow, it uses no more gas than a right turn. You have to use as much gas idling to wait for traffic turning right from a side street as you do waiting for traffic turning left on to a side street.

But the seconds of idling don't use much gas at all. What REALLY uses gas is stopping, period. Every time you touch your brake you convert the kinetic energy you spent gas obtaining to heat and throw it away. If you're stopped completely you must overcome inertia, which takes even more energy.

So when I take my foot off the gas when the light ahead turns red, coast to it, and am forced to stop behind your stupid ass at a green light because you zoomed around me racing to the red light, I'm blasting my horn, you rich damned dumbass. Waste your own damned gas but waste mine and I'm pissed.

-mcgrew

Re:Not all left turns are created equal

[Neoprofin (871029)]

You're going for fuel efficiency, many others or not.

I'll be the first to tell you that most people who gun it between intersection and weave through traffic trying to go faster are just flailing their arms and panicking. They're not helping anyone, especially not themselves.

However, if you're like me, and you travel the same routes day in and day out you start to see where problems occur. Well calculated lane changes to avoid things like probable stopped buses a block down and left turners without separate lanes can safe you very noticeable amount of time. Suddenly, racing past someone even if it means getting caught at the same light with them means that they're behind you when it all merges down to one lane. Instead of being stuck behind someone going 50mph on the highway, or more than likely 30mph, you're in a position to be in front of the person instead of behind them. Did it save gas? Don't know, don't care. Did it mean I could leave for work ten minutes later and not have to frustrated by slow person in front of me? Yep, and that's what I was looking for.

Old news?

[Quixote (154172)]

It was on Digg [digg.com] more than a year ago. And we all know how prompt Digg is, so this is quite old news.

Zoolander?

[Borealis (84417)]

At least Derek Zoolander has a fallback career now if he can't model anymore.

Re:

[toQDuj (806112)]

It really _is_ an idea, so true, so true.

Re:My rant - concept != implementation

[scsirob (246572)]

There's a difference between concept and implementation. Traffic shaping on highway onramps can help reduce congestion on the highways itself. This must be inplemented with some sort of feedback loop between traffic flow on the highway and the number of cars allowed onto it.

If you are waiting a long time when no traffic is on the highway then the implementation is flawed.

perception != reality

[Bearpaw (13080)]

While the implementation may well be flawed, it's also possible that the observer's perception of the situation is too limited to adequately judge it. By the nature of the problem, shaping traffic patterns can involve local actions that look non-optimal but have a positive effect on the overall system.

Re:

[eln (21727)]

It's so you don't have 80 cars coming from the same ramp trying to merge onto the freeway at the same time. When you have that many cars merging at once, they are invariably going at a very slow speed because some jackass who is afraid of the freeway is slowing everyone down, and you end up with a mad scramble as people in the right lane try to get out of the way, and people in the next lane have to move out of their way, and so on. The result is a situation where you are either going to get a collision o

I would be VERY surprised if it does not work.

[WindBourne (631190)]

Back in the early 80's, I-25 in Denver would literally come to a crawl and it would be true stop and go traffic. The reason is that at the top of the on-ramps would be stop lights. These would release a batch of cars (2 abreast), who would then FLOOD i-25. At the merge point, the I-25 cars literally had to stop to allow the mass of merging cars in. In 1986, they added those on-ramp lights, and it changed the flow of I-25. Basically, these were timed to the flow of traffic. As I-25 go heavier, then the red l

Re:

[lb746 (721699)]

They work great here in Columbus, Ohio. They only go on during heavy traffic times, and keep the flow of traffic on the highway going at a relatively quick speed. In Cleveland, where they do not have them. During a green light merge frenzy, the speed of the highway easily drops below the speed of local streets.

Re:

[digitig (1056110)]

I also think in the interest of public safety you should withdraw your invite, especially to those from countries that drive on the right side of the road - it is hard enough to get used to that change let alone the loose traffic laws and darting motorcycle taxis.

If Bangkok is anything like Mumbai, the side of the road is irrelevant. I had to ask a local which side of the road people were supposed to be driving on, because I couldn't tell by looking at the traffic.

Re:

[Reverend528 (585549)]

Nope, salesman [wikipedia.org].

Re:

[Speare (84249)]

Some CS major probably figured this out instead of traveling salesman.

Indeed, it's a reference to a classic computational logic problem, "the Traveling Salesman problem."

What's funny here is that a "few left turns" solution is still in the domain of the Traveling Salesman. It's not a case of "instead of," it's just a tiny bit more detailed as far as algorithms go. It simply attaches a different cost or weight on different edges of the graph, and in fact different directions of the same edge. Now, it takes a fair amount of work to provide accurate costs for each mile an

Re:

[should_be_linear (779431)]

Each self-respecting programmer will tell you that in UK it is enough to reverse algorithm and travel backwards.

Can you hear me now?

[RingDev (879105)]

After the .Com bubble burst left the IT market in shambles, us contractors were scrambling for work. One of the odd jobs I wound up with in that time frame was doing exactly what the "Can you hear me now? Good!" guy did. Only I had a car, multiple phones, and a lap top with some really cool software.

I drove virtually every road from NW Chicago, to Door County Wisconsin, over to LaCrosse, and down to Iowa. And it only took a handful of days to start looking for route optimizations. We didn't have software to do it for us, we had state maps, plotter maps, and the laptop maps with GPS. Eliminating Left turns in busy areas, specifically those with out turn signals was always a high priority.

I can imagine the problem would be even more significant for UPS drives because of the number of left turns they will have to make in uncontrolled intersections. Turning left on a 4-lane avenue with no traffic lights into driveways, frontage roads, parking lots, what ever, can be a PITA in a car, let alone a straight-truck. The amount of gas they can save from idling, and gunning it hard to clear traffic probably adds up to a significant amount over the length of the day.

-Rick

Re:

[cybermage (112274)]

Why does the union decide on the route?

Well, if the computer tells you your route and tells management how many miles that should put on the odometer and how much time it should take, it would be pretty hard to make side trips or otherwise slack off.

Re:Makes sense

[Dachannien (617929)]

From a time issue along. Left turns usually require red light wait, whereas many right turns just a stop, count 3 and go.

I suppose in the case of a UPS truck, the truck will probably win most of the time, but the rest of us usually make sure nobody's coming instead of counting to 3.