Oil. Cash. Disruption.
Step #1: Eliminate whatever is stupid.
Backed-up traffic costs $100 billion per year and wastes more than 2.5 billion gallons of fuel, not to mention the uncountable human hours —some of them yours.
What if traffic lights were smart?
Each set of lights is a sensor that feeds information about the traffic conditions, calculates the flow of vehicles, and works out how long the lights stay green in order to clear the road. Each set of lights can estimate for itself how best to adapt to the conditions expected at the next moment.
Self-organizing traffic!
Self-controlled traffic lights detect the randomly occurring gaps in traffic.
The flow of traffic is managed as if it were a fluid. Travel time is significantly less, red lights are shorter and more naturally distributed. Does not fight natural fluctuations by trying to impose a rhythm.