The Slow and the Furious: The Researcher Driven to Curb Atlanta’s Soul-Crushing Commute

Atlanta, 2004 — Guin beams with pride at Georgia Tech’s doctoral Commencement.

Angshuman Guin learned to drive on the narrow suburban roads of Durgapur, India, where double-digit speeds could induce panic.

“My driving instructor braced himself and screamed at me for reaching 20 miles per hour,” Guin recalled about a particularly memorable lesson. “He yelled, ‘Are you trying to kill people?’” These days, Guin still finds himself driving 20 mph — but that’s because he lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where inching forward in gridlock traffic often feels like a small victory.

He can’t escape gridlock — because he made it his life’s work. Guin is a principal research engineer in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He focuses on making transportation systems more adaptable, more efficient, and — one day — less frustrating.

“When people ask what I do, and I tell them I work on transportation problems, they say, ‘OK, you’re not very successful,’” he said, laughing. “But Atlanta is ground zero for traffic problems. I personally experience those problems and can see what works or doesn’t. It’s the perfect laboratory, a living lab.”

India, 1976 — Guin’s mother holds him close. Guin says his mother was already dreaming about his future when he was a baby.

Guin’s road to transportation research didn’t start with highways. As a child, he was more interested in dismantling radios.

“If I had seen the younger me, I would’ve said that kid will be an electrical engineer,” he said. “I used to take things apart and sometimes even electrocute myself. But I survived.” 

After years of shocking himself in the name of curiosity, Guin figured he'd pushed his luck far enough. With his father’s encouragement, he majored in civil engineering at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology because it offered fewer sparks — and more job security.

He explained, “Regardless of how much the world progresses, the need for building newer and better structures and roadways is not likely to disappear.” But during an internship designing bridges, Guin realized he might have made a wrong turn. It was simply “following manuals, following design guides, and it wasn’t fun,” he said. 

India, 1979 — A young Guin with his family. He credits his grandfather’s generosity, his father’s quiet strength, and his mother’s ambition for shaping and guiding his life.

That’s when he started thinking about graduate school. Guin knew transportation engineering could be more interesting, more technical, and more hands-on. He ultimately chose Georgia Tech, 8,500 miles from home. 

Guin landed in Atlanta in 1998 and was surprised by the emptiness of the streets — at least by Durgapur standards. “I was initially underwhelmed. I thought, ‘Where are all the people?’ Then I quickly realized all the people are in cars on the freeways.”

It was a city where no one walked, and everyone drove — very slowly. That paradox stuck with Guin. At Georgia Tech, he began digging into transportation networks and traffic engineering. Something clicked. He wasn’t just learning design principles anymore; he was solving puzzles. Every aspect, from signal timing and lane behavior to infrastructure planning, presented opportunities for experimentation and continual refinement. 

“That’s what I loved: working with systems, diagnosing problems, and trying to make something perform better,” Guin said.

After graduating, Guin worked for a civil engineering firm consulting for the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Traffic Management Center, the main hub for controlling metro Atlanta’s traffic. “That was my place,” he said. “I could see the traffic operations management happening in real time right in front of my eyes.” 

While he was excited to have a front-row seat to Atlanta’s infamously tangled traffic network, he felt constrained. Guin explained that he could only work on the narrow tasks his consulting firm was contracted to do. He felt limited by the scope of the projects he was assigned, and he yearned for a chance to push the boundaries and work on problems requiring more innovative solutions.

So, when Guin had the opportunity to return to Georgia Tech as a researcher, he did so without a second glance in his rearview mirror. Now he’s searching for solutions using machine learning, data analytics, and simulation of real-time transportation systems.

Guin hopes his research will create a transportation network with reliable travel times.

Guin’s approach to traffic research is both data-driven and deeply hands-on. 

“What if we could predict when a vehicle will arrive at a red light and turn it green in anticipation?” he asked. “We’re doing some of that now. But I want to do it systemwide — across entire transportation networks — using layers of prediction, from the minute level to seasonal traffic patterns.”

One of Guin’s projects involves adaptive traffic signals that respond dynamically to demand, potentially reducing wait times and smoothing traffic flow across busy roadways.

Guin’s team also created a digital twin of the traffic signal network for North Avenue, a busy, often congested street connected to Georgia Tech’s campus. The researchers set up hardware in the lab mirroring North Avenue’s exact conditions.

“Whatever happens on North Avenue, however the signal controllers react to the traffic, we feed that data in real time to these controllers in our lab, which do the exact same thing,” he explained. 

His goal: Recreate actual city conditions in a controlled environment, so researchers can test smart-city ideas without causing traffic jams in Midtown.

Indian Institute of Technology, 2005 — On his first visit back since graduating, Guin presented his dissertation to students whose drive and determination mirrored his own.

Guin understands the frustration commuters feel and why improvements often go unnoticed. 

“You open one more lane for traffic during the peak periods, but then that draws more people in,” he said. “We open a shoulder lane, and people think it didn’t help. But what really happens is that increased capacity induces more demand. So, it looks like nothing’s changed — but it has. It’s hard to convince people when they don’t really see it.” 

Guin added that the solution isn’t always more lanes. “You don’t build a road that’ll only be full for 15 minutes a day; the return on investment isn’t great.”

He pointed out that thinking has shifted from the idea that cities can build their way out of gridlock to how commuters can move more efficiently. That’s why Guin’s work focuses on predictive modeling and intelligent transportation systems — technologies that could one day eliminate congestion before it happens.

Guin is also exploring how apps like Google Maps and Waze are quietly reshaping traffic patterns. “We’re seeing drivers take more chances — like making unprotected left turns onto fast-moving roads — because the apps are trying to save them a little time,” he said. “That often means cutting through residential neighborhoods or smaller streets that weren’t designed for heavy traffic.”

The effects go beyond rerouted drivers.

“Smartphones have degraded the ability of traffic operators to influence flow,” he added. “They divert people faster than we can get messages up on electronic signs.” When operators post diversions on road signs, drivers often ignore them and follow what their phone apps tell them instead.

Guin admitted he also uses a navigation app every time he gets behind the wheel. Why? Although roadway congestion is the center of his professional life, Guin personally avoids it whenever possible. “I just can't justify sitting in Atlanta traffic, even though that's my job,” he said, laughing.

And while he’s no fan of being stuck in gridlock, Guin remains fascinated by it: “We love watching traffic,” he said about his fellow engineers. “We’ll sit there and look at a CCTV camera and get excited. ‘Oh, look at that car doing an illegal weave.’”

Guin shows Gwinnett County firefighters how to use GPS tracking tools he developed, kicking off a project to better understand and reduce delays for emergency vehicles.

One of Guin’s current projects is teaching traffic signals how to “learn” from their surroundings. By using reinforcement learning algorithms, a form of artificial intelligence, the system can adapt to what’s happening on the road in real time by adjusting green lights to keep cars and buses moving more smoothly. 

“The goal is to stop treating traffic like a surprise,” Guin said. “We already have the sensors and data. The challenge is turning that into foresight.”

And in many cases, that foresight is already revolutionizing the rules of the road. Guin’s research helps emergency responders reach people faster by using these algorithms. 

His research team devised technology to clear intersections before emergency vehicles arrive. It was first developed in collaboration with both the Fire Department and the Department of Transportation in Gwinnett County, Georgia — an Atlanta suburb. The concept proved to be so effective that it helped inspire a $5 million statewide initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The eventual goal is to bring this predictive signal-clearing system to more roads across Georgia. 

“If we can predict when and where an emergency vehicle will need to pass — and clear the path in advance — we’re saving minutes that can mean saved lives,” Guin said.

Guin demonstrates his “digital twin” of Atlanta’s North Avenue. The model brings traffic data to life, enabling real-time, real-world responses in a simulated environment.

The young driver once berated for speeding at a breakneck 20 mph has evolved into a respected researcher rethinking how we commute. These days, he’s helping cities move smarter — not by flooring it, but by making every signal, sensor, and second count.

“My vision is a transportation network where you can rely on travel times, a transportation system where commuters do not dread congestion and delays. I am extremely hopeful that our answer lies in a combination of data-driven technology and policy,” he said. “I understand transportation. I understand the problems. I can make a difference here.”