Minimizing traffic jams in urban Centers using vehicular ad hoc networks

Traffic jam in urban centers is a mobility problem responsible for significant economic losses and the degradation of the environment. However, a wide range of technologies, in particular, intelligent transportation systems, may be used to predict, identify and reduce vehicular traffic congestion. In this context, this work presents an Intelligent Traffic Information System (ITIS) which relies on inter-vehicle communication in order to avoid traffic jams in urban centers. The main goal of the proposed system is to reduce the average trip time, the fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions, thus increasing vehicular traffic efficiency, reducing economic losses and making cities more environmental friendly. Simulation results for a synthetic scenario have shown that our proposed system is able to accomplish this goal. In particular, the average trip time was decreased ≈47%, the fuel consumption ≈22% and the CO₂ emission ≈24%.