Closing the loop between traffic/pollution sensing and vehicle route control

The Vision: Our planet has become more urban than rural in the last decade, and the share of people living in metropolitan areas continues to rise with each passing year. Urban traffic has increased dramatically over the past three decades, making driving more stressful, costly, and unhealthy. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, the overall cost of (in the form of wasted fuel and lost economic productivity) metropolitan traffic congestion in the U.S. topped $87 billion in 2007, more than $750/year for every U.S. traveler. Drivers are not the only ones who suffer from the consequences of urban traffic. For residents, the health risks of air pollution seriously undermine the advantages of living in the city. As such, a systematic approach to traffic management requires a solution that must rely on real-time collection of traffic density and air pollution data, and it must feature real-time communication mechanisms for fine-grained traffic control.