When Prof. Joseph Schofer looks out at a line of cars building up on Sheridan Road outside his Technological Institute office, he sees more than just white knuckles gripping steering wheels and short tempers flaring.
“Do you see how backed up that traffic is out there?” the transportation engineering studies professor asks himself, running back and forth to the windows across his office. “The congestion is southbound — but wouldn’t you think that people were going north to the suburbs? But they aren’t!”
Schofer said he enjoys countering prevailing myths about traffic in the media and discussing ways to ease congestion. On Nov. 5 and 6, NBC 5 News interviewed Schofer, also chairman of the civil engineering department, for two segments, “The Truth About Traffic: Overcrowded Roads Examined” and “Futurist Traffic: High-Tech Solutions to Gridlock.”
Most people find the study of traffic mundane, Schofer said, because they think they know all the solutions to braving their particular city’s thoroughfares. But drivers become frustrated when they encounter something mysterious, such as “phantom blockages” — when the cause of a congested area is not visible.
And that’s when Schofer’s research kicks into high gear.
“Over the years, Americans have learned how to drive fast on limited access highways where cars get compressed very close together,” Schofer said. “If one tiny disturbance occurs, if someone sneezes and taps the brakes, it can escalate to a congested situation very fast.”
It’s a chain reaction. The driver behind the sneezer has to hit the brakes, followed by the driver behind him, and the compression wave moves “upstream,” back down the highway, Schofer said. When people sitting in this congestion pass the point where the blockage originated, not seeing an apparent cause frustrates them.
“But there is an explanation,” Schofer said.
Maybe someone sneezed, or maybe someone slowed down because they wanted to change lanes. Each occurrence adds a small amount of time to the commute, building up to hours and hours of delay.
If only there were a way to signal to drivers a few miles behind the temporary blockage that they were approaching some congestion, Schofer laments.
This is the idea behind his current research project. The “Assessment of Variable Speed Limit Implementation Issues” project examines the potential for speed limit signs that change with conditions such as weather and time of day.
Roadway sensors could detect phenomena ranging from phantom blockages to 10-car pileups, and the speed limit signs would change to a slower speed in a defined area behind the congestion. If drivers were forced to drive slower, the congested area would have time to unclog itself, thus increasing the overall speed of traffic flow on that road.
“If we get people to slow down and go at a uniform speed, it reduces delay and the likelihood of crashes,” Schofer said.
Beyond overhead signs, Schofer said Sweden is experimenting with roadside meters that send individual messages to receptors on car dashboards, telling drivers exactly how fast to drive in a specific situation. Another experiment in Sweden has meters to direct speed information to a “governor” in the car’s engine, automatically limiting the driver’s speed.
“In Sweden, they are very innovative,” Schofer said. “They are willing to try things.”
In the United States, there is no guarantee that transportation directors and urban planners will utilize even more basic research such as his, Schofer said.
“I’d be forever depressed if I measured my effectiveness by the degree to which I change the world directly,” he said.
Although Schofer said he realizes traffic problems are not the central issue in everyone’s life, he said they have complicated the lives of many people.
“When I go to a social event, I try not to tell anybody what I do, but if I have to tell them, what I find is that everyone is an expert,” Schofer said. “The problem is, the systems that we deal with are of high complexity.”
