The end of the road for traffic lights? 'Smart intersections' could help cars weave around each other to cut queues

Stop-start journeys punctuated with annoying queues at traffic lights could become a thing of the past. In the city of tomorrow, traffic lights will be replaced by intelligent intersections enabling cars with sensors embedded to automatically weave around each other, town planners have claimed. Such smart junctions, where lanes of cars merge harmoniously from one to the next, would cut traffic jams while enabling twice as many vehicles to use a road. The concept was developed by researchers at MIT's Senseable City Lab who believe such junctions will become a reality with the take up of cars fitted with sensors that enable them to'talk' to one another. Connected and self-driving vehicles are predicted to lead to safer and more efficient cities, for example.