Citation

de Pedro T, Garcia R, Gonzalez C, Alonso J, Onieva E, Milanés V, Pérez J. Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 2009; 2009(5602): 399-407.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/978-3-642-02267-8_43

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Due to its potential for going into details or getting a global view of the system, agent architecture is a good frame to create an urban traffic control system. In fact, the agent architecture has allowed us to design a control system able of coordinating the traffic of a set of cars in certain scenarios, using, as initial core, the car control algorithms. In further steps, a higher level layer with the decision making systems and a lower level layer with the car control actuators have been added to the agents. Finally, the agent architecture can be extended with a higher level layers to control the traffic in critical areas or urban areas.

Improving urban traffic by making an engineering effort to improve movement and safety is not the only way to approach urban traffic issues. Hans Monderman pioneered the concept of "naked streets" by removing all things that were supposed to make it safer for pedestrians -- traffic signal lights, railings, signs and curbs. He thereby created a completely open and even surface -- the Monderman shared space -- where motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians "negotiated" with each other through eye contact. He believed that natural interaction between the driver and pedestrian would create a more civilized environment. Early application of his concepts included the 1992 treatments in Makkinga and later the La Weiplain junction in Drachten, both in the Netherlands.