21st Century Traffic Control and Management for Large Congested Cities: Exploiting Pervasive Vehicular Automation, Connectivity and Sharing

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The objective of this research program is to develop integrated traffic control systems for smart cities in the 21st century that exploit emerging innovations in vehicular automation and connectivity and shared mobility services. Cities in Canada and worldwide are growing increasingly busy, a trend that perpetually rises. Populations and human activity are growing, while transportation infrastructure is limited by space, financial and environmental constraints. With trending vehicular automation and connectivity (e.g. the google car) and vehicle and ride sharing (e.g. uberPOOL) our transportation systems and our cities are at the precipice of a paradigm shift, second only to the first revolution of introducing the car itself in the early 1900s. Technology and new transportation services are rapidly transforming the fundamentals of how our cities shapeup and how we move within them. However, we are not yet fully prepared for the consequences. The boldest vision for smart transportation in smart cities of the future is automated, connected, green and shared. The net effect, however, is far from certain, and can be significantly positive or drastically negative, depending on how we explicitly design and exploit such innovations and manage their evolution and adoption in society. We have yet to build science and tools to concurrently manage both the demand (trips on the road) and supply (infrastructure capacities and efficiency) in the context of large cities. This research, therefore, focuses on the context of large and complex transportation systems in cities, and not on vehicular technology creation per se. We focus on how to exploit disruptive transportation technologies and services to maximize the societal benefits while avoiding potential risks and unintended consequences. More specifically, we will use modern machine learning coupled with fundamental traffic flow theory and economics to: (1) quantify the impacts of transformative technologies on the transportation system and its performance and (2) create traffic control, optimization and management methods, tools, strategies, and policies that guide the inevitable transformation in a positive direction, improving the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of our future cities. We will develop systems for trip pricing to avoid exacerbating sprawl and traffic congestion. We will also exploit high levels of automation and pervasive connectivity to build new traffic control systems that boost infrastructure capacity. The new systems and policies will be implementable and enforceable using technology, with minimal public infrastructure and at reasonable costs. The significance of this research is to prepare Canada for the era of smart cities at the core of which is smart transportation. This is essential for the economic, social, and environmental sustainability and wellbeing of Canada.