Traffic Lights Chip in Vehicles - Technology Essay Example

One of the most formidable challenges experienced by motorists in today's urban centers is having to stop and wait constantly at the traffic lights. Though the traffic lights are used to bring harmony between the pedestrians and motorists, pose major challenges in towns and cities(Chung,772). Reducing the time spent stopping at the traffic lights would, therefore, work to the advantage of many people. One justifiable and sustainable means through which I seek to solve the challenge of waiting for traffic signals by motorists is by inventing a chip that can be embedded in vehicles' onboard computers. The chip would utilize the use of 3-D imaging and sensors and make an automatic decision on when it is safe to pass through the green lights instead of wasting time on the red lights while nobody is crossing the road. Automation is one of the most effective ways to deal with shortcoming resulting from traffic lights (Lammer,56). This project would be highly sustainable when fully realized because of several reasons.

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Research indicates that the average American motorist in big cities such as New York spend a fifth of their time waiting for traffic lights to turn green daily. This figure translates to over two days per year spend sitting waiting for the traffic lights to give the green signal.The figures for time spend at the traffic lights across the world are almost consistent. Apart from wasting time, waiting at the traffic lights stop also has several negative effects.For example, in the case of Britain, especially large cities like London, there are always issues that arise due to the constant stops made by cars at the traffic lights.There are several reasons why the time spends waiting for the traffic lights to turn green by motorists should be reduced.

Constant stopping at the traffic lights by motorists is responsible for increasing traffic congestion in cities (De Charette,23). Traffic congestion in cities and towns has becomee\ a major headache for most urban planning authorities in the 21st century. Any idea that might lead to decongesting traffic in an urban center is therefore highly welcome in today's world. If the chip is embedded in vehicles, it will ensure fast movement of traffic across in cities and town and therefore provide a solution to the traffic congestion menace in urban centers.

At traffic lights stops, motorists leave their vehicles' engines running idle.This means that some fuel is wasted every time vehicles stop at the red traffic signal.Studies suggest that each year, the average American spends 19 gallons of fuel sitting in traffic lights each year(De Charette,36).This means that the cost of operating the vehicles are increased by idle time wasted waiting for traffic lights. The chip would help to save America millions of dollars each year upon its implementation in cars. This is going to be beneficial to the economy.

The chip would also be useful in helping reduce environmental pollution in urban centers. Idle engines at traffic lights stop are responsible for increased ecological pollution in urban centers (Spellerberg,326). One of the global goals is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The chip would, therefore, be very useful in helping solve the issue of environmental degradation in cities and towns.

Works Cited

Chung, K. H., P. M. Hui, and G. Q. Gu. "Two-dimensional traffic flow problems with faulty traffic lights." Physical Review E 51.1 (1995): 772.

Spellerberg, I. A. N. "Ecological effects of roads and traffic: a literature review." Global Ecology and Biogeography 7.5 (1998): 317-333.

Lammer, Stefan, and Dirk Helbing. "Self-control of traffic lights and vehicle flows in urban road networks." Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment 2008.04 (2008): P04019.

De Charette, Raoul, and Fawzi Nashashibi. "Real time visual traffic lights recognition based on spot light detection and adaptive traffic lights templates." Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 2009 IEEE. IEEE, 2009.