Re:Pre-emptive analysis? (Score 2, Interesting)

City planners don't need access to this sort of technology in places with traffic jams. I am one... in a city with really bad traffic. Like a few astute individuals have pointed out below - the traffic jams happen at the same times everyday, on the same routes! I saw a nationally-recognized traffic engineer speak once - he was a real renaissance engineer, for his age. In his presentation he showed us data that suggested that regardless of the capacity of a road, the dynamics of vehicles and drivers in the US results in a average maximum throughput of about 35 mles per hour of any typical arterial or highway. Basically, we get to choose how many cars we want stuck in traffic by choosing the number of lanes (and the capacity at the ending points) in our arterials and freeways. Adding lanes is only a very temporarily successful measure. Another interesting point he made (I've GOT to remember this guy's name... senior moment) is that at 30 mph or less, it is much more effficient to distribute traffic over a grid system, even at lower speeds, than it is to try to puch them all through a big pipe (freeway). Sounds familiar, eh?