Reducing vehicular congestion at an intersection

A portable computing device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a short-range communication interface to communicatively couple the portable computing device to a vehicle;
• a long-range communication interface to communicatively couple the portable computing device to a vehicle;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the portable computing device to:
• detect a group of two or more vehicles stopped at an intersection regulated by a traffic light, wherein for each of the vehicles in the group, movement through the intersection in response to a change in a state of the traffic light is affected by movement of at least one other vehicle in the group,
• determine a time when the state of the traffic light changes to allow the group of vehicles to start moving through the intersection,
• determine one or more acceleration parameters for a certain vehicle in the group in view of potential and/or actual movement of the other vehicles in the group through the intersection,
• provide guidance to the portable device operated by a driver of the certain vehicle regarding the determined one or more acceleration parameters, in accordance with the determined time,
• monitor a movement of the group of vehicles through the intersection after the state of the traffic light changes,
• modify the group in response to vehicles entering or leaving a lane, and
• adjust the acceleration parameters in view of the modified group.

A network server comprising:

• one or more computing devices;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the network server to:
• detect a group of two or more vehicles stopped at an intersection regulated by a traffic light, wherein for each of the vehicles in the group, movement through the intersection in response to a change in a state of the traffic light is affected by movement of at least one other vehicle in the group,
• determine a time when the state of the traffic light changes to allow the group of vehicles to start moving through the intersection,
• determine one or more acceleration parameters for a certain vehicle in the group in view of potential and/or actual movement of the other vehicles in the group through the intersection, including:
• monitor a movement of the group of vehicles through the intersection after the state of the traffic light changes,
• modify the group in response to vehicles entering or leaving a lane, and
• adjust the acceleration parameters in view of the modified group;
• and
• provide guidance to a device operated by a driver of the certain vehicle regarding the determined one or more acceleration parameters, in accordance with the determined time.