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Traffic management based on basic safety message data

  • US 9,940,832 B2
  • Filed: 03/22/2016
  • Issued: 04/10/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2016
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of managing traffic along a roadway system including a first unidirectional lane having traffic flowing towards a first heading, a second unidirectional lane having traffic flowing towards a second heading and a bidirectional lane that is configurable to have traffic flowing towards either the first heading or the second heading, wherein the first heading is different from the second heading and the bidirectional lane is presently configured so that traffic in the bidirectional lane flows towards the first heading, the method comprising:

  • wirelessly receiving a set of basic safety messages (“

    BSMs”

    ) describing a set of vehicles traveling along the roadway system, each BSM included in the set of BSMs describing a specific vehicle included in the set of vehicles and including basic safety message data (“

    BSM data”

    ) describing a lane of travel for the specific vehicle, a speed of travel for the specific vehicle and a heading of travel for the specific vehicle, wherein the set of BSMs are received by a dedicated short range communication (“

    DSRC”

    ) antenna associated with a BSM traffic management system;

    collating, by a processor, the BSM data into a plurality of subsets based on a portion of the BSM data describing the lane of travel, wherein the plurality of subsets includes a first subset including all the BSM data received for vehicles included in the set of vehicles traveling in the first unidirectional lane, a second subset including all the BSM data received for vehicles included in the set of vehicles traveling in the second unidirectional lane and a bidirectional subset including all the BSM data received for vehicles included in the set of vehicles traveling in the bidirectional lane;

    analyzing, by the processor, the BSM data included in each subset to determine a first value for an Average Differential Speed Among Opposing Lanes of traffic (“

    ADSAOL”

    ), wherein the first subset and the bidirectional subset oppose the second subset since traffic in the first unidirectional lane and the bidirectional lane flows towards the first heading and traffic in the second unidirectional lane flows towards the second heading;

    analyzing, by the processor, the ADSAOL to determine whether reconfiguring the bidirectional lane so that traffic in the bidirectional lane flows in the second heading would result in a second value for the ADSAOL that is closer to zero when compared to the first value; and

    providing, by the DSRC antenna, a signal to a traffic light that reconfigures the traffic light to allow traffic in the bidirectional lane to flow towards the second heading.

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