£6m traffic flow system drives down congestion
Technology to play key role in managing overcrowding on roads
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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