A balanced and workable
new transportation plan
for the City of Toronto

Expressway Traffic Optimization technology

ETO -- Expressway Traffic Optimization -- ETO

Smart, Responsible Ecodriving

ETO will eliminate gridlock on all expressway lanes,

with low-emissions un-congested little-braking fuel-saving

ETO-optimized traffic for all drivers 24/7/365.

Helps remove through traffic from local neighbourhood roads.

ETO is the low-cost practical congestion solution concept. Dramatically less expensive than alternatives such as constructing more lanes or switching to public transit.

Pavement-embedded ETO signal lights spaced 10 metres (32 feet) along lane centrelines, guide individual drivers in real-time, to use best headway (speed and spacing), assuring safe sustained efficient traffic, especially during merging.

Absolutely no special vehicle equipment. Guides drivers of every vehicle type, year, price. Including buses, trucks and motorcycles. Strictly optional in-vehicle ETO unit, automates driver participation.

ETO times signals to individual drivers, to orcheste smooth overall traffic. Even 20% driver participation can greatly ease congestion.

ETO Options

Carpool High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes / High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes.
Metered on-ramps regulate traffic loading.

Priority parallel HOV / HOT metered on-ramp queue, rewards vehicle sharing.
Speed-choice parallel lanes, separate fast and slow drivers.

What Is Vehicle Headway?

Headway is travelling time in seconds, of each front bumper, as far as the next ahead in same lane.
Standard safe driver reaction headway = 1.8 seconds => traffic flow 2000 vehicles per hour per lane.

Mis-matched headways cause congested traffic flows, falling to as low as 300 vehicles per hour per lane => an 85% waste!
Real-time headway management is key to maximizing safe traffic efficiency.

ETO Headway Signals

Ultra-simple headway guidance -- every driver is always in 1 of only 3 states:

"early" => LOW headway => too FAST and/or too CLOSE (to vehicle ahead).

"late" => HIGH headway => too SLOW and/or too FAR (to vehicle ahead).

"ok" => OK headway => SPEED and SPACING are ok.

More About ETO

1.	ETO Graphic Art	From graphic art student's thesis, on communicating the ETO idea.
1.1	ITS-ETO3.pdf 93 Kb	ETO Logo.
1.2	ITS-ETO4.pdf 965 Kb	EgoDriving Poster (before ETO).
1.3	ITS-ETO5.pdf 910 Kb	EcoDriving Poster (after ETO).
2.	ETO Text Pages	Content of prior version of ETO web presence.
2.1	ITS-ETO1.pdf 169 Kb	Flyer with static GIF of ETO signaling (prints on one 8.5x11 page).
2.2	ITS-ETO2.htm 79 Kb	Web page with 9 sections (2 on Ontario, Canada politics in February 2007).