Even when they are on roads equipped with advanced traffic-data-collection and advisory systems, drivers know that a fender bender can turn the morning rush hour into an endless wait. Transportation researchers at the National University of Singapore say that although they can't prevent crashes or rubbernecking, they'll soon have a better way to disperse traffic and avoid jams: computers will identify the best response and change electronic highway signs to suggest alternate routes, for instance. The Singapore project is just one of several traffic-prediction efforts that, by 2004, could be saving drivers' time in cities such as Tokyo, Los Angeles, Houston, and Stockholm, where "intelligent highway" infrastructures are already in place.

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