Virtual Traffic Lights: System Design and Implementation

Abstract: 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.