Traffic Efficiency Applications over Downtown Roads: A New Challenge for Intelligent Connected Vehicles

Vehicular network technology is frequently used to provide several services and applications for drivers on road networks. The proposed applications in the environment of road networks are classified into three main categories based on their functions: safety, traffic efficiency, and entertainment. The traffic efficiency services are designed to enhance the moving fluency and smoothness of traveling vehicles over the road network. The grid layout architecture of the downtown areas provides several routes toward any targeted destination. Moreover, since several conflicted traffic flows compete at the road intersections, many vehicles have to stop and wait for safe situations to pass the road intersection without coming into conflict with other vehicles. The traffic efficiency applications in this scenario are designed to select the most efficient path for vehicles traveling toward their targeted destination/destinations. Moreover, other applications aimed to decrease the queuing delay time for vehicles at road intersections. In this article, we review several recently proposed mechanisms that worked to enhance the fluency of traffic over downtown road networks and point to the expected future trends in this field.