"How Does it Work"

The technological basis of the community is the existing mobile cell phone network, the internet, and a voluntary program running in the background on cell phones people already have and use today.

When you drive your commute with the program running you are traveling through a series of mobile telephone cells. For any routine commute, the start cell is always the same and the destination cell is always the same, but the sequence of cells you travel will be different depending on alternate routes you may choose to avoid highway traffic congestion.

A mutually beneficial exchange of data occurs between your cell phone and the internet/network as you travel:

On those initial trips where your phone is learning your route:
1. Your phone records the series of cells you travel through on your primary and alternate routes. This data includes both total trip duration and time spent in each cell.

On all trips:
2. Your cell phone anonymously reports the residence time in each cell to the internet database.

Before and during each routine (learned) commute:
3. Your cell phone reads the most recent data about residence times (provided by other commuter community members) and calculates an estimated time of arrival for each of the alternate paths to work.

4. Your cell phone tells you which way is the fastest before each decision point on the commute so that you can choose a good way.

Frequently asked questions:
1Q. Do I need GPS?
1A. No, this uses a less precise locating method - namely: which cell site is serving my signal.

2Q. What if two alternate routes are both inside one cell?
2A. Use your eyes to determine which way is best in those cases. What we are trying to do here is use a social network to extend your vision so that you can make decisions early enough to avoid the general congestion that occurs as people respond to what they see.

3Q. For this to work, don't members the commuter community have to experience delays to populate the data for other people?
3A. Yes, but any compensation scheme I have thought of creates a privacy loophole. Information about who is supplying cell residence data should never exist.

"What would I do?" and "When would I do it?"

You would:
1. Run a program in the background on your cell phone during your commute to and from a routine destination - like work, sports practice, lessons, or church.
2. Drive the 2 or 3 alternate routes you have taken to avoid traffic snarls in the past, this time running the program.
3. Listen for a trigger telling you when you must leave to arrive at your destination on time.
4. Look or listen for your phone to tell you which route is preferred prior to each of the branch points.
5. Selectively notify your destination party of estimated time of arrival (ETA) if you are running late.

"Who would Participate?"

People who care about their families, their jobs, their customers, their coworkers, their neighbors, their time, their environment, their future - and use cars or trucks for a daily commute of 20 minutes or longer each way. People who have mobile phone service along their commute route.

eMotion Mobility -- National Traffic Statistics

eMotion Mobility -- National Traffic Statistics

Facts that show the cost of traffic congestion.

"Why Do I Want to Participate?"

Traffic jams hurt people.
Traffic jams and snarls make people late, cause stress, and cause conflict.
Traffic jams hurt the environment.
Traffic jams create air pollution including greenhouse gases. Traffic jams consume precious energy resources. Traffic jams are noisy.
Traffic jams hurt community.
Traffic jams make people unpredictable. It is hard to cooperate in community if you are not coordinated. Moments are missed, time is lost, people are straight-jacketed because of unexpected traffic snarls, when there is another way.

Wealth is the product of cooperation.