Go to the ant, transport expert, see its ways and be wise. Impressions from the smart transportation conference at Afka College

The meeting was organized by the ECOMOTION association, which is a joint venture of the Prime Minister's Office, the Israel Institute for Entrepreneurship Policy, the Ministry of Science and the Foundation Foundation in collaboration with ACITRAL - Afka Center for Infrastructure, Transportation and Logistics.

Go to the ant, transport expert, see its ways and be wise. This is how Prof. Arel Avinari from Afka College described the results of research he participated in, as part of a smart transportation conference at Afka College. The meeting is organized by the ECOMOTION association - a joint venture of the Prime Minister's Office, the Israel Institute for Entrepreneurship Policy of the Ministry of Science and the Foundation Foundation in cooperation with ACITRAL - Afka Center for Transportation and Logistics Infrastructure.

"The subject of my research is the behavioral aspect of online information sharing - focusing on the need for transportation information and its sharing. I had an interesting project where I collaborated with researchers in the field of biology who studied ants. One of the claims is that maybe optimizing transportation is a difficult issue, but rather ideas from the world of ports led to optimal solutions and perfect information sharing."

"When we talk about smart transportation systems today, we mean on the one hand smart vehicle technologies and on the other hand technologies that want to improve the infrastructure, but there is also a third element: the human factor - the users of transportation. Those users that we have assumed so far do not need to be made more intelligent because they are already intelligent. It is very important to understand not only how a car communicates with a car, but also how a person communicates with a person."

"Perhaps the individualistic approach of Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, causes the problem. The self-interest of individuals is in conflict with the interest of society as a whole, for example using a bus instead of cars. We are part of the solution but also part of the problem. 10-15 years ago there was a huge growth of the information systems market, and the idea was to invest and give people online, up-to-date and complete information. The more information people have - people will be able to make wiser decisions. From bus travel times, to smartphone apps and computer-based transportation planning of the individual's trips."

"Despite the investment, there is disappointment with these smart information systems, because they haven't changed people's behavior too much. Perhaps one of the reasons is that the system developers tend to think of the user as a computer that is able to take all the information and process it in real time. But anyone who sees how much intelligence it takes to refuel with self-fueling, we understand that this is not accurate. An example of this, following the reform in Santiago de Chile - the public did not get used to it and developed an alternative information system using notes on the stations with a simple explanation of where each line goes."

"Therefore we must try to find insights from the world of ants. Ants manage to find optimal routes from the food back to the nest. One of the mechanisms that helps them is chemicals called pheromones. An ant that has found a good route in its opinion leaves chemical traces, and the route becomes more fragrant. If a lot of ants passed there, it means it's a good route. When an ant returns from a route that was too crowded, it pushes the ant in front of it and thus signals to it 'don't go away.' "

"Thus, through chemicals and interactions, the ports achieve perfect coordination and optimization of the transportation network. Why are we not like the ants? Is it because we are selfish? From studies we see that people are not selfish but tend to cooperate and thanks to this we have reached what we have reached. We want to see and therefore we must look for the other barriers. Don't we have a way to communicate with each other? This is also not true, because we have many methods to interact with others - on the smartphone and other means. We have tools to communicate with other drivers by signals."

"A number of applications have been developed, with one of the biggest challenges being to reach a critical mass of users. For example: seat61.com of a British train user who always likes to sit in seat number 61 and put up a website where all the options for traveling by train in large areas of the world. Other examples are the website of the public transport passengers organization in Israel which tried to bring order to the reform through the wisdom of the masses tachbura.wordpress.com. And of course car sharing software such as CAR POOLING. RIDESHERING, LIFTSHARING. And finally, a new Israeli venture that connects people who are on the road with drivers traveling in the same direction - buzzjourney."

"I was a partner together with British researchers in a study where we studied cyclists and the information they pass on by word of mouth. We sat down with a computer genius, we developed an application that contains both geographic and social information. We looked at what makes people use the app and what makes them contribute information. We took 23 people, all of whom worked in the same area. We analyzed their internet activity, interviewed them using qualitative methods. After a week, the site came to life, many people upload routes, suggestions, and ideas. The conclusion: sharing information also has a social meaning that reinforces behavioral changes. It is important to build trust. It is not only a top-down process but also a bottom-up one. People should be given the opportunity to help each other, to contribute to each other. Small, limited community projects have a role in encouraging behavior change among road users."

Dr. Amir Ziv Av, the chief scientist of the Ministry of Transportation, told about the way the ministry is trying to deal with the increase in traffic. In 2012 there were 50 billion kilometers of travel in Israel. "In terms of the dry numbers, Israel is in a good place in the OECD. In the seventies we traveled 10 billion kilometers a year, and there were about 700 deaths a year. This year - 5 times as many passengers and only 290 dead. Although each kill is a complete world, but it is still an improvement that I attribute to the infrastructure revolution. A revolution in the entire national road system with the interchanges, the safety rails and the roundabouts in the urban areas. Another factor is the improvement in the safety level of the cars. In the same accident scenario of the seventies or eighties people would have been killed - today only injured and not even seriously but moderately. Of course, in terms of the human factor - the improvement of behavior is a result of education, but also the air-conditioned cars.

"Our problem is that the rate of increase in travel is approximately 3 times greater than the rate of increase in road space. The infrastructure projects have undergone a revolution, including the execution capacity of the State of Israel in infrastructure production. If 5 years ago it took 10 years to build the Gillot interchange or Wingate - today it takes XNUMX years. Today, people who live outside of Tel Aviv and work there, are required to spend three hours on the road and seven hours at work. If we do nothing, this figure will reverse."

"Technological solutions can be seen in two directions: on the one hand, reducing the increase in travel by transferring to public transportation, and on the other hand, increasing the efficiency of the infrastructure. The smartphone will be the main building block for drivers, vehicles, public transport users and the control system. Every smart phone is a floating source, and in addition, stationary sources - meaning the coverage of the entire road network with cameras in real time.

"It will be necessary to provide information available in real time to the system and to all users who will not travel on a road that they will not be able to exit. A simple verbal dialogue between the users and the smartphone. Automatic collection should be instituted along the lines of Route 6 for all users - toll roads, expressways, blue and white parking lots, fines, traveling on the national highway, payment on buses, light rail, heavy rail, and more."

"The customer's requirements are to reduce the total travel times of people and cargo, to reduce the load, quick evacuation and rescue in the event of an accident, a quick return to normal traffic after incidents on the road and improving safety.

Functional requirements: transferring maximum road users from private to public transportation, providing complete and reliable traffic information in real time to drivers and users, simple dialog and automatic charging. Preference for public transport at traffic lights and public transport routes. Schedule synchronization of main public transportation factors, priority for emergency vehicles, minimum sensitivity to cyber incidents, security and natural disasters."

additional requirements

"There is a need to develop proven, reliable, up-to-date and simple technologies available over the years; Minimum types of technologies, optimal utilization of the existing system; Proven national architecture and common international standards. There are knowledge fronts in the traffic light control centers of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but not the same technology. There are monitoring systems on the 431 and in the Carmel tunnels, and Gebiya on Route 6, but not the same technology."

"There is complete optimization in the air: at every moment there are over a million people flying and over a million containers flying and we know exactly everything about each one. You can't do that in transportation, because you can't control all the people with all the cars. Therefore, the problem needs to be simplified. Macro traffic management - overall optimization. In micro everyone will do local optimization. The system will manage traffic lights, connections between traffic lights, ramp traffic lights, alternating lanes, electronic signs, cellular and internet information, priority for public transportation, priority for emergency vehicles, management of safety incidents and collection. We manage traffic lights, alternating lanes, signage and that's it."

"The second simplification is to divide the country into three metropolises and an intercity network. Natibi Israel is almost a nationwide network that does this anyway. A third simplification of the problem - they only manage roads that have an alternative. Fourth simplification - they only deal with significant roads - about 10% of the length of the roads, although they contain the majority of traffic."

"Every person will have a smart phone or cellular GPS. If we get this information we can know at any moment who is and where he is moving. There are 2.5 million points, the majority are parking. There is a need for continuous photography, in my opinion also enforcement cameras. Traffic light durations are already being optimized today, and there is also an attempt at alternating lanes. But it needs to be done on a larger scale."

Fast lanes

"The highway 1 expressway is an outstanding success, we want to duplicate it; Special routes for public transportation - exist today, but there are safety issues that need to be resolved. There were experiments in Israel for priority for emergency transport. Coordination, synchronization and information between all the components of public transportation - everything is there: when traveling inside a train or bus and there is a point that moves on the map so that we don't have to look for where we are."

"All the technologies already exist today, the rate of penetration of the technology into the user population is pleasantly surprising. Simplicity, verbal dialogue and available information are conditions for use. Israel also has systems at the forefront of global knowledge. The challenge is in the coordination of all the factors related to a coherent focus on the realization of the technological vision and the beginning is with the steering committee for management and control established by the Ministry of Transportation. "