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If we consider road traffic in urban areas, one of its major problems encountered nowadays is that of traffic congestion. The paper aims to provide an improvement, in terms of reducing traffic congestion, by analyzing different traffic light cycles. A traffic light cycle is determined by the red and green duration of the traffic lights. Traditionally these two have a fixed duration and controlling road traffic can be achieved by modifying it, resulting in a congestion reduction. We present a comparison between the fixed and an improved fixed situation, as well as a QL algorithm to further reduce the congestion at an intersection. Urban traffic can thus be optimized, in terms of reducing congestion, on an existing traffic light system. A study case validates the results, based on road traffic data obtained from the city of Bucharest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bucharest is one of the most affected cities in the world in terms of road traffic congestion and under these conditions, drivers are constantly looking for new strategies to help them cope with daily traffic. They are increasingly relying on more on navigation applications installed in their smartphones with GPS capabilities. This research aims to investigate drivers' perception of the way they use navigation applications and their purpose, especially Waze, their perception of the impact of these applications on traffic and the city or even on socialization (socialization through the application or the socializing effects of the application itself). The study conducted in 2018 reveals the positive perception of the impact that the application has and highlights its new affordance, drivers using it as a socialization tool, a utility that was not initially intended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present geo-political context, Romania plays an important role at the level of passengers and goods transport, as a basis between Central and Western Europe on the one hand, and Asia Minor and the Middle East on the other hand. At the end of the 20 th century, the mountainous axis Bucharest — Ploiesti — Brasov was one of the most circulated axes from the entire Carpathian bow. Railway traffic, but especially road traffic had already exceeded the infrastructure's limits, even if it was extended and modernized in different stages. The mountainous highway would cross several sectors which are difficult from the point of view of the relief (narrowing, abrupt slopes with intense geo-morphological processes) but also from the point of view of lands' use (the axis of mountainous resorts Sinaia — Busteni — Predeal). Thus, the identification of areas which are suitable for the construction of the first mountainous highway from Romania in the context of sustainable development proves to be an extremely important challenge. With the help of GIS techniques, by interposing several types of spatial data, it was identified a straightway of mountainous highway which would cross the clough, having a reduced impact upon environment, and in accordance with European norms. The project was done at the scale 1:3000, by interposing several ground mappings, morphographic maps (lands' use, tectonic maps, lithological maps, geomorphological maps) and morphometric maps (declivities, fragmentation density, relief energy). The precise representation of the crossed area was done by juxtaposing orto-photo-plans over the numerical model of the land. The radiuses of curves, the buckets and declivities were done according to European norms, so that they could allow a circulation with the speed of 120 km/hour in safety conditions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart cities are complex, socio-technological systems built as a strongly connected System of Systems, whose functioning is driven by human–machine interactions and whose ultimate goals are the well-being of their inhabitants. Consequently, controlling a smart city is an objective that may be achieved by using a specific framework that integrates algorithmic control, intelligent control, cognitive control and especially human reasoning and communication. Among the many functions of a smart city, intelligent transportation is one of the most important, with specific restrictions and a high level of dynamics. This paper focuses on the application of a neuro-inspired control framework for urban traffic as a component of a complex system. It is a proof of concept for a systemic integrative approach to the global problem of smart city management and integrates a previously designed urban traffic control architecture (for the city of Bucharest) with the actual purpose of ensuring its proactivity by means of traffic flow prediction. Analyses of requirements and methods for prediction are performed in order to determine the best way for fulfilling the perception function of the architecture with respect to the traffic control problem definition. A parametric method and an AI-based method are discussed in order to predict the traffic flow, both in the short and long term, based on real data. A brief comparative analysis of the prediction performances is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]