Revolutionizing Driveing | Green Energy News

January 4, 2004 – Vol.8 No.41

REVOLUTIONIZING DRIVING?

Cars and trucks crawling in traffic have severely reduced fuel economy. Drivers waiting in endless lines of cars waste productive, sometimes profitable time.

But what if drivers knew before the beginning of a trip, as well as along the way, of traffic conditions ahead? Would they chose alternative routes to avoid wasting time and fuel?

Possibly. No one wants to deliberately enter a traffic snarl.

But where would real-time, 24-hour-a-day traffic reports come from that could help drivers steer clear of problems ahead? Radio traffic reports via helicopter and aircraft help, but are often limited to major roads and often only during rush hours. Overhead electronic signs warn only of conditions ahead, not alternative routes. None of these are good enough for today’s driving society.

A better solution seems to be on the way.

SIRIUS, the satellite radio service, has announced that it expects to begin offering real-time traffic information to subscribers in about a year. The company will offer three levels of service.

A simple traffic service will update drivers about regional traffic conditions and will work with all Sirius radios. The digital display on the radio will convey the information.

An advanced traffic service will be fully integrated with vehicle navigation systems to graphically show traffic flow and incidents (accidents and construction work) as well as alternative routes around the problem areas.

And a predictive traffic service will combine weather, flow, speed, incident, alternative routes, historical data and predict how long it should take to get to a destination as well as what time the driver should begin the trip.

Overall, if this service catches on not only would driving from A to B more efficient but better use of existing roads - those alternative routes - would be made. Better utilized existing roads could relieve some of the need by governments to build new ones to handle evermore cars on the road.

SIRIUS services and radios are sold though a growing number of automobile manufacturers and as add-on or stand-alone systems for homes and boats. Visit SIRIUS at http://www.sirius.com/ (click Company Info, News Releases).