If you commute to work, you’re probably like most people who do the “stop and go” thing a few times during your travels. I suppose I’m lucky because I just report traffic problems as part of my job, but I rarely have to sit in traffic jams. The other day the SF Chronicle had a front page story on traffic bottlenecks and I thought it was pretty interesting because there is a professor of engineering at U.C. Berkeley (Pravin Varaiya) whose devoted his professional career to freeway congestion and how to make freeways more efficient in terms of cars moving around on the roads.
I interviewed him as part of my other job (public affairs director for the stations) and we had a pretty good discussion on the causes of bottlenecks during commutes and how to lessen the congestion on the roads. We talked about local freeways, but this conversation can easily apply to any metro area.
Have a listen and let me know what you think! 🙂
–PK
J
July 12, 2007 at 6:52 amI got stuck in the worst traffic jam on my way to work this morning…Gen almost tripped me. 😉
I consider myself very lucky to not have to drive to work on congested freeways, I’ll tell ya. This was an interesting interview, though.
Py Korry
July 12, 2007 at 7:00 amI like the fact that HE was the guy who developed the automated freeway. Too bad it probably won’t happen. Now we’ll never have the future I imagined. 🙁
Ml
July 12, 2007 at 7:31 amLuckily I’m early enough that I don’t hit traffic jams going to and from work. They’re an ugly frustrating thing to have to deal with.
Gina
July 12, 2007 at 10:57 amI can’t listen yet, but I’m sure it’s interesting. ANYTHING to get these freeways moving.
Cherry
July 12, 2007 at 1:58 pmTraffic? Here in the Bay Area? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
I thought I had thought up the idea of the whole automated freeway type thing. Actually my thoughts were more around keeping people at safe distances as apposed to cars being pulled along to keep traffic moving. It’ll never happen though. People like the power and the control.
Interesting interview Py!
Lalunas
July 12, 2007 at 7:18 pmWell, what did you think Py? Good theory, but will it work and will it decrease the fustration of the individual driver.
Py Korry
July 12, 2007 at 11:49 pmI think any politician worth his or her salt will take these ideas seriously and start test programs in some hot spots. That means working with local governments to work on the approaches to freeways on city streets, putting up electronic signs to let people know how long the back up is and all that other good stuff. If it results in a dramatic decrease in traffic, then I think we may have a good solution to traffic bottlenecks.
But I don't think we'll ever get the automated freeway. 🙁