All the Right Signals

Regarding the notion of sacrifice on behalf of the environment, one noteworthy commonality, based on the responses to last week’s post, was the clear necessity to create formal incentives for more effective environmental behavior. On an ethical level, ideological opposition to a healthier environment is difficult to conceive, but when the concept of sacrifice is introduced a far greater segment of society appears unwilling to make meaningful commitments. The solution, at least in the short term, will require a hybridized approach to increasing environmental sustainability without demanding significant or inconvenient changes in the daily lifestyles of US society. Rather than a tremendous, overarching plan, it will be small scale actions replicated by millions of US citizens on a daily basis that begin the progression toward a greener society.

One such area that provides an outlet for green ingenuity is the daily commute to and from places of work. Rush hour traffic and delays at intersections increase the amount of time commuters spend in their vehicles. If there were a way to reduce the average duration of the commute, the result, taken in the aggregate, could prove to have a positive impact on decreasing carbon emissions. Such is the rationale behind SignalGuru, a mobile application for smart phones that has recently been developed by three students, two from Princeton University and one from MIT. SignalGuru is an application that broadcasts the traffic light schedule to users who have downloaded the necessary software. The idea is to provide the driver with information on what speed to travel in order to avoid red lights. According to the article, SignalGuru exhibited a 98.2% accuracy rate during its test in Cambridge, Massachusetts. More importantly, fuel consumption fell by approximately 20%.

This project is admittedly not one that will galvanize the environmental movement, nor will it single-handedly solve the problems presented by climate change. But it is significant in that it could be put into direct use by millions of commuters without bureaucratic regulations, market distortion, or the accompanying political divisiveness that could in other situations complicate the initiative. It is not a universal solution; usage would be limited to paying customers who have smart phones. But considering the lack of political polarization and the savings in fuel, SignalGuru is just one example of how new technology and programs can be effectively utilized to create social value. SignalGuru can be replicated in other cities (the software was also tested in Singapore) across the United States and the world, and could hypothetically give rise to similar applications in the future. In a nation where climate change itself is subject to debate, applications such as SignalGuru provide a source of hope for the very reason that opposition to their use is a matter of consumer choice rather than political views.