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  3. Is sitting in traffic as inevitable as death and taxes? Perhaps not. Many countries now have dedicated traffic-monitoring centre

Is sitting in traffic as inevitable as death and taxes? Perhaps not. Many countries now have dedicated traffic-monitoring centre

admin2014-04-20  54
问题     Is sitting in traffic as inevitable as death and taxes? Perhaps not. Many countries now have dedicated traffic-monitoring centres linked to networks of cameras and sensors. Throw in traffic-spotting aircraft, accident reports and the known positions of buses fitted with satellite-positioning gear, and it is possible to see exactly what is happening on the roads. Drivers could switch from busy to quiet routes and avoid congestion—if only they had access to this information.
    And now they do. Systems such as the Traffic Message Channel and the Vehicle Information and Communication System(VICS), in Europe and Japan respectively, pipe data from traffic centres into in-car navigation systems via FM radio signals. Drivers can see where the traffic is and try to avoid it. Honda, a Japanese carmaker, even combines VICS data with position data from 150,000 vehicles belonging to members of its Premium Club so that they can choose the fastest lane on a congested road, says David Schrier of ABI Research, a consultancy.
    Meanwhile ITIS, a British company, is one of several firms experimenting with mobile-phone signals to monitor traffic on roads that lack sensors or cameras. Its software hooks into a mobile operator’s network and uses a statistical approach to deduce traffic speeds as phones are "handed off" from one cell tower to another. The data must be cleaned up to exclude pedestrians and cyclists, but this idea has great potential, says Mr Schrier.
    Another way to dodge traffic is to predict where and when it will form. In Redmond, Washington, at the headquarters of Microsoft, employees have been testing a traffic-prediction system called JamBayes. Users register their route preferences and then receive alerts, by e-mail or text message, warning them of impending traffic jam. JamBayes uses a technique called Bayesian modeling to combine real-time traffic data with historical trends, weather information and a list of calendar events such as holidays. Eric Horvitz of Microsoft, who developed the system, says it is accurate 75% of the time, and 3, 000 employees use it daily.
    A system called Beat-the-Traffic, developed by Triangle Software of Campbell, California, with funding from the National Science Foundation, goes further. It not only warns drivers of impending traffic but also suggests an alternative route via e-mail or text message. Andre Gueziec, the firm’s boss, thinks traffic forecasts will become as prevalent as weather forecasts. Indeed, in June, KXTV News 10, a TV station in Sacramento, California, began showing Triangle’s traffic forecasts for the coming week.  
It can be inferred from the passage that______.
选项 A、Traffic jam remains unavoidable worldwide
B、Traffic forecasts will become as authoritative as the weather forecasts
C、There is always a short cut by using one of these systems
D、New systems will improve the transportation situation
答案D
解析 推断题。从题干可以看出本题是基于全文的推断。首段通过设问Is sitting in traffic as inevitableas death and taxes?Perhaps not引出文章主旨：交通路况监测系统。然后分别介绍了不同系统的工作原理和工作方法。末段倒数第二句对这些系统的前景进行了预测：traffic forecasts will become as prevalentas weather forecasts．由此可以推断这些新系统将改善交通拥堵的状况，故[D]为答案。[A]与开篇首句提问的答案Perhaps not矛盾，故排除。末段倒数第二句指出：交通预报将会变得和天气预报一样普遍。并没有提到两者的权威性(authoritative)，排除[B]。作者只是在第二段介绍VICS的时候提到the fastestlane，介绍其他系统时没有提及，[C]过于绝对，故排除。
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