The Mergex System
Mergex can bring relief to our overcrowded highway system NOW! While other approaches have been advocated, none has the level of sophistication, along with conceptual simplicity that is embodied in Mergex, and none has been successfully implemented.
The “holy grail” of traffic management is represented by VII (Vehicle Infrastructure Interface) systems that monitor and/or control the position of a moving vehicle relative to other adjacent vehicles through communication between these vehicles and the highway. However, any level of widespread implementation is decades away, and is constrained by the heavy infrastructure cost, the technological challenges of systems integration and the necessity of having the required sensors incorporated in new vehicles and retrofitted in older models. If and when this system reaches commercial viability, Mergex can be easily adapted to work with it.
How Does Mergex Work?
To understand Mergex, consider a simple two-lane highway that drops down to one lane. As the traffic in both lanes approaches the merging taper, the vehicles in the right lane have to merge into the left lane. Under normal circumstances, even with warning signs, the traffic backs up leading to gridlock since not all drivers are cooperative enough to execute a zipper-like merge (where each alternate driver in the left lane allows one of the right lane vehicles to merge ahead of them).
With Mergex, a vehicle traveling in the left lane will align itself with a “pacing” light that travels along each lane. These lights guide the left lane drivers to open up a larger gap with the vehicle ahead in what is referred to as the Pacing Zone, typically a half mile in length. A similar set of lights “paces” drivers in the right lane so they are aligned to easily move into gaps created between vehicles in the left lane (accomplished downstream in the Merging Zone). This relative pacing is executed through proprietary algorithms that generate the differential speeds and accelerations for vehicles in the two lanes. A monitoring sensor tracks the characteristics of the traffic approaching the Pacing Zone. This in turn dynamically alters the outputs of the algorithm that drives the pacing lights.
To see Mergex in action, click on the Mergex Visualization tab.
The “holy grail” of traffic management is represented by VII (Vehicle Infrastructure Interface) systems that monitor and/or control the position of a moving vehicle relative to other adjacent vehicles through communication between these vehicles and the highway. However, any level of widespread implementation is decades away, and is constrained by the heavy infrastructure cost, the technological challenges of systems integration and the necessity of having the required sensors incorporated in new vehicles and retrofitted in older models. If and when this system reaches commercial viability, Mergex can be easily adapted to work with it.
How Does Mergex Work?
To understand Mergex, consider a simple two-lane highway that drops down to one lane. As the traffic in both lanes approaches the merging taper, the vehicles in the right lane have to merge into the left lane. Under normal circumstances, even with warning signs, the traffic backs up leading to gridlock since not all drivers are cooperative enough to execute a zipper-like merge (where each alternate driver in the left lane allows one of the right lane vehicles to merge ahead of them).
With Mergex, a vehicle traveling in the left lane will align itself with a “pacing” light that travels along each lane. These lights guide the left lane drivers to open up a larger gap with the vehicle ahead in what is referred to as the Pacing Zone, typically a half mile in length. A similar set of lights “paces” drivers in the right lane so they are aligned to easily move into gaps created between vehicles in the left lane (accomplished downstream in the Merging Zone). This relative pacing is executed through proprietary algorithms that generate the differential speeds and accelerations for vehicles in the two lanes. A monitoring sensor tracks the characteristics of the traffic approaching the Pacing Zone. This in turn dynamically alters the outputs of the algorithm that drives the pacing lights.
To see Mergex in action, click on the Mergex Visualization tab.
