22 Feb 2007
The Highways Agency (HA) is rolling out a £6m national traffic management technology programme to cut congestion on the UK’s busiest motorways.
The flow control project went live at junctions 33 and 40 of the M1 this week, after small-scale trials on the M6 last year improved journey times by 11 per cent.
Another two sites will be up and running with the Motorway Access Management system next week. All 30 planned junctions will be live by the end of March.
Technology will play a key role in managing the growing problem of overcrowding on UK roads, says HA intelligent transport systems engineer Jason Burrows.
‘The system will manage traffic flow with the aim of minimising the impact of cars joining the motorway, without adding to local congestion,’ he said.
Sensors in the road surface gather data on traffic speed and flow and send it via a wireless link to a roadside outstation. The system then co-ordinates an appropriate response, via traffic signs, such as merging lanes that have wide gaps between cars.
The system also uses queue managemencongest algorithms to further reduce congestion.
‘When the threshold for traffic flow is reached, the signalling system comes online to control the flow of traffic,’ said Burrows.
Similar technology is already in use in the US. But the HA wanted to wait for advanced systems, capable of tailoring traffic flow algorithms to individual sites.
Gartner analyst Mike Williams said: ‘Technology has to be used in tandem with other initiatives such as car-pooling or more investment in the road infrastructure.’
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Further reading
On Monday 21st February, Prime Minister Blair challenged critics to come up with a better solution to the growing problem of traffic congestion.
I accept that challenge.
Furthermore we can achieve this without tolls.
He has been informed of this today by email on his Downing Street web site.
We can change any city's traffic infrastructure to give Liquid Flow Traffic.
If the road infrastructure cannot achieve free and uninterrupted vehicle flows no technology will help!
The solution to traffic jams is not the size of the road but the ability of an intersection to work correctly.
Traffic lights just stop traffic, roundabouts are for light traffic and freeway intersections are fundamentally flawed. They have been like this for over 80 years as supposedly world's best practice.
Problem is it just doesn't work.
If it worked why do we get jams and gridlock?
Because the present system is designed to slow you down.
At www.ubtsc.com.au we have models of intersections that work at 100 per cent efficiency.
They allow all vehicles entering an intersection to exit that intersection left, right or ahead without stopping all day every day without fail.
Yes even during the worst peak period you can imagine.
We also have a number of other transportation solutions that are environmentally zero polluting.
None of this is worth anything if government at all levels dismisses it!
Think outside the square for solutions and look for the positives of what this means.
I did.
Imagine being able to cross town in peak hour traffic without stopping at a single intersection.
Jozef Goj, CEO, UBTSC Pty Ltd
Posted by: Jozef Goj 22 Feb 2007
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