I understand the intention here of reducing stop time at stoplights for cars, but I think this is a dangerous project.
The word pedestrian, or bicycle does not exist in this article whatsoever. Traffic lights are a flawed, but useful tool for traffic calming. If we optimize for reducing the amount of red lights cars will run into, this will fundamentally increase speeds on roads, and increased speeds, equals increase pedestrian, cycle, and car deaths.
This is all conjecture, but it seems like the key indicator that Google is providing two cities is reduction in stop time. If that is their key metric, while also not looking at other things like bicycle stop time, or pedestrian wait time; we will be optimizing for average car speed indirectly. That is a bad thing inside of cities.
The word pedestrian, or bicycle does not exist in this article whatsoever. Traffic lights are a flawed, but useful tool for traffic calming. If we optimize for reducing the amount of red lights cars will run into, this will fundamentally increase speeds on roads, and increased speeds, equals increase pedestrian, cycle, and car deaths.
This is all conjecture, but it seems like the key indicator that Google is providing two cities is reduction in stop time. If that is their key metric, while also not looking at other things like bicycle stop time, or pedestrian wait time; we will be optimizing for average car speed indirectly. That is a bad thing inside of cities.