Restricted Road Allocation for Priority Vehicle Route Conflicts
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing demand for ridesharing services, including autonomous and manually-driven vehicles, leads to increased road incidents and traffic congestion due to unsafe pickup and drop-off locations, and unauthorized use of restricted road infrastructure, which is often underutilized, resulting in penalties for unauthorized use.
Innovation Solution
A cloud service that allocates restricted road portions to non-priority vehicles based on the locations and routes of priority vehicles, preventing conflicts and optimizing the use of restricted stops and lanes by generating routes that avoid conflicts with priority vehicle usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If non-priority vehicles use restricted road portions, then utilization of restricted infrastructure is improved, but conflicts with priority vehicle access occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary allocation of restricted road portions to non-priority vehicles by determining time windows when these portions are not needed by priority vehicles. This advance planning allows non-priority vehicles to use restricted infrastructure without conflicting with priority vehicle operations, thereby improving utilization while maintaining reliable priority access.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the allocation of restricted road portions based on real-time or predicted priority vehicle locations and schedules. By making the allocation dynamic rather than static, the system can optimize utilization during periods when priority vehicles are not present while ensuring priority access when needed.
2Adaptability or versatility
If ridesharing services increase, then transportation availability is improved, but traffic congestion and road incidents increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables restricted road portions to serve multiple functions: exclusive use by priority vehicles during their operational periods and shared use by non-priority vehicles during periods when priority vehicles are absent. This multi-functionality increases transportation capacity without requiring additional dedicated infrastructure, thereby reducing overall traffic congestion.
Solution Approach 2:
The cloud service acts as an intermediary that coordinates between priority and non-priority vehicles, managing access to restricted road portions. By mediating these interactions and optimizing route allocations, the system enables increased ridesharing activity while preventing conflicts and reducing harmful effects like congestion and incidents.
Data Source
AI summary
A cloud service receives locations of priority vehicles (PVs) and non-priority vehicles in a metropolitan area. The cloud service accesses a database storing indicia of restricted road portions in the metropolitan area. The cloud service allocates restricted road portions from the database to the NPVs based on the locations of the PVs, the locations of the NPVs, and locations of the restricted road portions. The allocating includes preventing some of the restricted road portions in the database from being available to be allocated to the NPVs based on determining, according to the locations of the PVs and NPVs and according to pre-stored routes of the PVs, that estimated uses of the road portions by the NPVs would conflict with estimated uses of the road portions by the PVs as they travel along the pre-stored routes. Routes generated to include the respectively allocated road portions are provided to the NPVs.