Towards Smart Mobility in Urban Areas Using Vehicular Communications and Smartphones

Nowadays, professional fleets and non-professional drivers pursue to reduce the consumption of fuel and to reduce their travel times. Nevertheless, this may be challenging in urban areas due to the density of traffic. Dense traffic increases travel times and, as a result, the consumption of fuel and the generation of pollution. Thus, it is very important to develop new systems and models that allow us to reduce the negative impacts caused by traffic jams. This paper presents a communication system based on the Wi-Fi Direct technology, in which a conventional smartphone is used to detect and prevent traffic jams in urban areas in real-time. We have developed an autonomous system with commonly available technologies. Our system uses a decision algorithm to determine when a traffic jam occurs (probable and sure), informing other vehicles about this situation. Drivers may act in accordance and change their initial route with the aim of avoiding traffic jams and, consequently, reducing travel times and fuel consumption. Through several field tests in which different conditions have been considered, the results show the feasibility of our system.