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A car made by Audi is involved in a project looking to reduce congestion and global warming. UK politicians, please take note.
Monkeying around with traffic lights for political purposes is nothing new.
In late 2002 ex-London mayor Ken Livingstone was accused of phasing the lights so they spent more time on red than green, to make pre-Congestion Charge central London artificially busier than the post-charge capital when the phasing was returned to normal. Allegedly, it was in order to 'prove' just how well the scheme had worked.
But in 2008 a new scheme - being trialled by Audi and traffic management experts in the German carmaker's hometown of Ingolstadt - is trying to spread some love between traffic lights and cars by getting them to talk to each other for a less-congested greater good.
The 'Travolution' project - okay, I know, the name stinks but it's only a trial - aims to streamline urban traffic flows by alerting Audi drivers when a light is due to change to green. Communication modules fitted into the town's traffic lights send messages to the cars in their vicinity to let them know the amount of time remaining until they'll turn green again. Systems
in the equipped vehicles then work out how fast or slow the driver should approach the lights in question. All the necessary stats are posted on each Audi's multi-media interface display (or MMI).
Just like the few seasoned London cabbies who worked out how to sail through green light after green light along the Marylebone Road by keeping a steady speed, this system aims to reduce urban stopping and starting and the associated emissions and fuel wastage.
A total of 46 intelligent traffic lights have already been installed on overhead gantries to 'chat' electronically with specially modified A5 and A6 models, and a further 50 lights are planned as the 1.2 million Euro pilot project develops. Reports of non-Audi-badged cars in Ingolstadt following around those with four rings for optimum traffic light entry and exit speed remain unconfirmed.
Can you imagine the same scheme getting passed by any council in the UK - maybe with Jaguar cars in Coventry or Minis in Oxford? Most British towns seem too busy spending cash on traffic 'calming', 'preventing' or 'pricing' in order to qualify for special central Government financial incentives.
Encouraging unlimited private car use may no longer be desirable or even feasible in a country with 32 million-plus vehicles, but getting the cars that genuinely do need to travel to flow more smoothly sounds like a splendid aim.
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