Accelerating the adoption of Virtual Traffic Lights through policy decisions

A new technology known as Virtual Traffic Lights (VTL) was recently proposed as a self-organizing new paradigm for traffic management. This new technology uses the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications as its premise. VTL can revolutionize traffic management in urban areas as it can substantially reduce commute time of urban workers, increase productivity, and lead to a greener environment. In a VTL environment, vehicles self-organize to elect a leader which serves as a virtual traffic light to decide the right of way at that intersection, thus replacing the current physical traffic lights. Implementing VTL technology with partial penetration, however, is an outstanding issue that needs to be addressed. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a co-existence model whereby VTL equipped vehicles can co-exist with vehicles that do not have VTL. Simulation results show that the transition model proposed here could provide drivers with strong incentives to adopt the VTL technology.