How long a car stands at a traffic light is decided by an invisible artificial intelligence in Moscow. He counts every car. He sends help to those who have an accident or stalled on the highway. Did you know about it? Under the heading "How does it work?" Hi-Tech Mail.Ru found out how artificial intelligence is fighting traffic jams in the capital, and why traffic jams do not want to go away.
One day on your way to work, you will pass the usual traffic jam 15 minutes faster. Or you'll stall on the highway, and a tow truck will come out of nowhere, even though you didn't call anyone. Know that this is an intelligent transport system (its) that monitors Moscow's roads in real time.
Artificial intelligence in one form or another is used in Russia in Moscow, some major cities and on Federal highways. But in the capital, for obvious reasons, its is the most complex and extensive.
The brain center of an intelligent transportation system.
The "brains" of an intelligent system are 64 servers, thousands of processor cores and 16 terabyte storage. This is the base of the virtual cloud. Everything is in the basement of a four-story building - in the situational center of the Traffic Organization Center (TSODD).
"Iron" collects information from traffic lights with sensors and surveillance cameras. An algorithm is written from it, or a dynamic transport model that adapts to the situation on the roads
Short-term and strategic forecasts are built. For example, statistics are collected for traffic jams typical for a particular time of day on the Leningradskoye Highway during a week. This will be a short-term forecast. And when the data on traffic jams for the whole season accumulates, a strategic forecast will appear. Forecasts and determine how the intelligent system to manage roads.
Manages thousands of traffic lights and sends help.
The main tool of the intelligent system is traffic lights. The system independently adjusts the operating time of the red, yellow, and green phase signals. It also switches between phases depending on the number of machines, which it considers to be video cameras and automatic detectors.
At the dawn of the introduction of the intelligent system, the schedule of phases-scenarios of traffic lights was set up by engineers, calculating traffic flows. Now the system is free to switch traffic lights on its own.
There are 2390 traffic lights in Moscow. This is not the pole itself with lanterns, of which there are about 40 thousand in the city, but a complex of a controller and several poles. To have something to compare: there are 1170 traffic light objects in Los Angeles. In Toronto - 75. So in the capital, traffic is more fragmented, but also easier to regulate.
If there are not many cars, a "green wave" starts up on the road - the green one turns on at several traffic lights in a row. The method works only not at peak times, that is, rarely. Most often, the green light turns on sequentially at intervals, letting cars pass in portions so that the traffic jam somehow moves.
The program of each traffic light is configured for a specific intersection, depending on what is happening around and at the next intersections.
The system can also understand when a car accident or breakdown has occurred. For example, stopping even one car in a tunnel or on a highway is fraught with a General traffic jam. The camera automatically takes a screenshot, marks the stopped cars with red arrows, and sends a message to the traffic police if it is an accident.
Can't do without man.
The system, though clever, but without intuition, knowledge and experience of the Moscow human can't do. Hourly - and at night too - operators are on duty in the situation center of the data center. Each of them has three monitors at the workplace. As dexterous puppeteers, they hold several strings in their hands at once.
Watching cameras, responding to requests from drivers, reporting an accident to the traffic police, establishing a connection between a traffic jam in a lane and a traffic jam on a highway - this is an incomplete list of the operator duties.
Traffic information is collected from all possible sources. News headlines are used to track whether a major concert or match is planned somewhere, whether a storm or snowfall is coming-potential causes of traffic jams.
— We have an assistant — our system. It alerts you to unusual traffic jams, — on-duty shifts Sergey Stoyanov expands the "stack" of Windows on the monitor. It shows the real image from the cameras and the motion mnemonic. — The operator steps in when something goes wrong.
Operators of the situation center can contact the traffic police themselves and ask them to quickly remove the accident at important points where traffic obstacles are fraught with collapses. In cases of collapses, the DATA center can send its employee or ask the Inspectorate to come to the site to resolve the situation in the old-fashioned way — with a striped stick.
Prevent the "Butterfly effect".
Go "what's wrong" can be due to an accident, damage to traffic lights or cars in the middle of the highway. Large traffic jams sometimes occur due to a small congestion in a tiny alley adjacent to the highway. Only a person can analyze such situations and make a decision.
Situations are different and very "human". Two cars "got used". Drivers got on the road and find out who is wrong and who has a stronger fist. Or they are set up peacefully, but firmly decided to wait for the traffic police and record a scratch on the bumper. And they stand in the middle of the roadway, and after them — the entire highway.
"Because of a scratch, drivers stand on the road for hours, swearing or afraid to leave the scene of an accident. But to consider a "tin can" as an accident is like considering physical damage if I step on your foot. In Italy, for such downtime, even because of a breakdown in the middle of the highway, you can get a fine".
Or on the road will come watering machine. The utility worker may unknowingly choose the wrong time - morning rush hour. He drives himself along the highway at a speed of 5 kilometers per hour, washes the fence, quietly whistling his favorite melody under his breath. Behind him stretches a string of malicious drivers. There is a traffic jam for kilometers.
Only the operator can understand where the head of the huge plug is and why it stopped. It selects the traffic light phase or sends to the source of problems from one crew "Road patrol".
Why the traffic jams have not gone anywhere
According to the Moscow government, since 2011, the speed on the highways, on the Moscow Ring Road, the Garden Ring and the Third Transport Ring in the city has increased by 12-13 percent.
- This is an average indicator, so there are streets where the indicator is better or worse, - explains the meaning of the figures Evsin.
But Moscow is still one of the most corkscrews. In the ratings of the analytical company TomTom, the capital is in 13th place among the cities with the most congested roads. Traffic jams occupy 44 percent of the roads. And in the February lists of the Inrix company, Moscow is generally in second place - first with Los Angeles. People spend 91 hours a year in traffic jams in Moscow.
Why did the traffic jams remain as they were? We counted three reasons.
1. Quantity of cars. There are really a lot of them in Moscow. 4.6 million cars are registered in the capital region, and 3.5 million move around the city every day. Most of them form the rush hour. The number of cars of the pendulum increases by 100-200 thousand in December before the New year.
2. Not the appropriate road space. In the center, priority is given to public transport and pedestrians. The capital is trending here. Rebuilding and expanding sidewalks, introducing dedicated lanes, and paid Parking is the evolutionary path of the modern metropolis. But this makes cars feel bad.
3. Drivers. Not all observe traffic rules, crawling to the sidelines, "undercut" each other. Accidents due to sloppy driving or too reverent attitude towards property become the reasons for long congestion.
Now there is one more factor - "My street". Every Moscow motorist knows that summer is better to go around the center, because the streets are annoying green fences, "bite off" on the road two or three bands. But the factor is temporary, because construction will end in autumn.
Moscow is probably one of the last countries to introduce an intelligent road transport system.
- The traffic control project first appeared in Munich in 1991. The system estimates the load and the forecast for the day, to optimize the work of traffic lights. The number of serious accidents and the number of deaths on the roads decreased by 30%
- In the cities ITS EU countries was used for flow analysis and retrieval of emergency places, buildings and navigation information. The names are funny - CONCERT, CLEOPATRA, COSMOS, EUROSCOPE, TABASCO and others.
- ITS is available in London, Bristol, Brussels, Lyon, Piraeus, Southampton, and Toulouse. They regulate Parking lots, detour routes in case of accidents, traffic in tunnels, and on ring highways.
- In the United States and Canada, all attention is given to city and suburban connections. Highway networks in the major cities of Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, new York and others are equipped with automated control systems.
The performance statistics are impressive. In the listed cities velocity increased from 20 to 40 percent. The number of downtime, the number of road accidents and the degree of air pollution have decreased. People began to use public transport more often.