The shift to sustainable journey modes like electrical automobiles (EVs), carpooling, and public transit, has made journey instances extra diversified. That is largely because of the availability of devoted lanes, equivalent to carpool lanes, additionally referred to as high-occupancy automobile (HOV) lanes, that are reserved for automobiles with a number of passengers and are designed to maneuver visitors extra effectively throughout peak hours. Consequently, HOV lanes are usually quicker than common lanes throughout rush hour. For instance, in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley, the typical pace in HOV lanes was recorded at 68.18 mph in comparison with 58.60 mph generally lanes, a distinction of about 16%.
Correct estimated time of arrival (ETA) predictions and optimized routing are key to bettering the commuting expertise. With exact ETAs, vacationers could make higher choices, save time, and even contribute to lowering congestion and emissions. With this in thoughts, Google Maps not too long ago launched a function that lets drivers choose routes that embody HOV lanes and see that route’s ETA. On this weblog publish, we clarify how we developed this function and developed a classification system to find out HOV journeys from non-HOV journeys, which led to the launch of HOV particular ETAs in Google Maps.