Lamba: Tech can ease future traffic woes

Naveen Lamba is leader of IBM's Global Business Services Intelligent Transportation practice.

Sometimes, a problem can be crystallized in a single, disturbing image.

You're crawling along the Expressway in one of those awful, summer traffic jams. You're late for something, and the highway is packed -- work traffic, beach traffic, mall traffic, trucks. In the distance you see an electronic sign with an urgent message. Inching closer, you grow hopeful that it will offer some helpful information -- maybe a way out of your dilemma.

But then the words become visible: Expect heavy delays.

"Are they kidding?" might be one of the milder thoughts flashing through your brain.

Sadly, they're not kidding. Road signs that proclaim the obvious are just one symptom of the inadequacy of today's transportation management systems.

The need for something better is urgent. With its start-stop traffic and stomach-churning tie-ups, rush-hour driving in much of the nation has become a daily test of endurance that tries even the hardiest souls. According to a recent study by the Texas Transportation Institute, congestion in the New York metropolitan area costs nearly $11 billion annually in lost time and wasted gas.

Traffic congestion clearly has a major impact on our personal well-being. And summer seems to be the season of our most virulent discontent. A recent IBM analysis of comments posted by drivers on blogs, Twitter and other social media indicates that driver stress peaks in August as vacation and work traffic jockey for the same asphalt.

Indeed, Long Island practically invented the end-of-summer traffic nightmare in its many incarnations -- from Friday afternoons on Montauk Highway to Sunday evenings on the LIE.

But what can be done? We've all experienced traffic for so long that we are inured to it. We accept it as the cost of living in an suburban environment.

We hope that the next construction project -- a new lane or traffic pattern -- will get things moving. But common sense and hard-won experience indicate that a comprehensive, long-term solution will require something more.

Fortunately, there's reason to be hopeful. With technology, we are now able to understand complex systems that previously resisted investigation -- systems as diverse as waterways, oil fields and transportation networks. Forward-thinking transportation officials around the world are undertaking important projects to address the traffic beast by using roadways more intelligently.

In one California pilot, for example, commuters can sign up to receive customized traffic reports via text messages or email before they begin their trip. Not the current traffic information, but traffic conditions that will exist up to 20 or 30 minutes later, when they are well into their journey. This way, they can find an alternative course before they even leave their house.

In Singapore, traffic planners receive data from GPS devices in taxicabs as well as sensors embedded in the roadway. They can analyze the information with sophisticated algorithms to predict traffic jams before they happen and take pre-emptive actions to reduce the impact or duration of the forecast congested conditions.

How could such a system help Long Island? Imagine this: A commuter at home in Stony Brook is getting ready to leave for work when he receives a text message that traffic on the Northern State Parkway, his customary route, is expected to be much heavier than normal in 45 minutes. He's automatically offered several options that will get him to his job in Westbury on time.

These could include an alternative driving route or a recommendation to simply wait 20 minutes before getting in the car. Or the system could send a reminder that a train is leaving from Stony Brook in half an hour. It's more than an hour by rail from Stony Brook to Westbury -- sometimes more than an hour and a half -- but smarter systems could make that commuting option more attractive, especially on really congested days. For example, if a parking space were automatically reserved for our commuter at the Stony Brook station and a taxi dispatched to the Westbury station as the train arrives, the trip would be downright seamless.

This all sounds very futuristic, but the technology exists today. Smartphones are ubiquitous. Many Island roadways are already equipped with sensors that feed extremely useful traffic information to officials. In some parts of the country, even parking spaces are starting to be connected to communications networks. Tying it all together, recent advances in analytics technology enable us to get the correct answers to extremely difficult questions very fast -- just witness the winning performance of the Watson computing system on the Jeopardy quiz show earlier this year.

For decades, the transportation problem has seemed insoluble -- we repair infrastructure endlessly, yet the traffic gets worse. But today, with the wealth of data available and advanced analytical and communication technologies, it is possible to make much more intelligent use of our transportation resources. By providing timely and actionable information to travelers, we can fundamentally alter the dynamics of getting people from point A to point B.

This is particularly good news for Long Island. Nassau and Suffolk counties share a well-developed transportation network -- highways, parkways, north-south connectors, high occupancy vehicle lanes, and a railroad with 11 branches and stations in most villages -- and it's not exactly easy to expand the transportation infrastructure. Even adding a lane to an overburdened road often requires a gargantuan effort and a multiyear commitment. In such an environment, we need to use the existing infrastructure more intelligently.

The stakes are high. But if we can move beyond the old way of doing things and prepare our transportation network for the 21st century, we will improve our quality of life and lay the groundwork for a new era of economic growth.