Active traffic management

Active Traffic Management (ATM) is a scheme for improving traffic flow and reducing congestion on motorways in Britain. It makes use of automatic systems and human intervention to manage traffic flow and ensure the safety of road users. It is currently in operation on the M42 motorway south-east of Birmingham and in Warwickshire. The scheme has been criticised by some due to possible safety and environmental concerns, however it may now be expanded onto other roads following the initial trial on the M42. It is seen as a less expensive alternative to widening a road.

The Highways Agency's road building budget was £3billion over budget and widening a motorway in the UK costs around £79million as opposed to implementing ATM at a cost of around £5-£15million. It was estimated that widening this stretch of motorway would cost £500million, whereas implementing ATM would cost £100million. It is estimated that it takes 10 years to implement a widening scheme as opposed to 2 years for ATM. Traffic has increased by 80% between 1980 and 2005 whilst road capacity has increased by 10%.

ATM involves converting the hard shoulder into a normal lane during periods of high traffic flow to expand the capacity of the road and may reduce the need to widen motorways. Similar schemes have already been implemented in Europe.

The section of road subject to ATM is monitored by MIDAS sensor loops placed in the road every 100 metres (328 ft) (which is closer than normal)^[9] to observe traffic flows. A computerised system monitors the traffic flows and can set the best speed limit for the current flow of traffic and switch on speed limit signs mounted on gantries^[10] up to 2 kilometres (1.24 mi) before an incident. Operators can also monitor 150 CCTV cameras along the route and can control both the speed limits and information signs. Overhead variable message signs can direct drivers to use the hard shoulder during busy periods.

When the speed limit has been lowered to 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) or below the hard shoulder can be opened as an additional lane. To facilitate this and still maintain safety a series of refuge areas have been created around every 500 metres (1,640 ft) along that stretch of the road. These take the form of lay bys to the side of the hard shoulder and contain the SOS phones within them. In the event of a vehicle breaking down on the hard shoulder, operators can close it or they can close a lane to allow emergency services access to an accident. The hard shoulder is never opened on the sections under a junction between the off and on slip roads. Close to junctions use of the hard shoulder as a lane is restricted to traffic exiting or entering at that junction.

In 2008 and as part of the pilot a section of the southbound carriage way between junctions 4 and 3A began operating using the hard shoulder with a speed limit of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h), a 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) increase on the previous maximum permissible speed.^[15]

The system makes use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras which to monitor traffic flows and tailor the system. Digital enforcement cameras are also mounted on the gantries and are operated by the West Midlands Police to enforce the mandatory variable speed limits.

Installation of the first scheme began in November 2004. The first phase, the variable speed limit, came into use on the November 29, 2005. The final stage of ATM began operation on the M42 on September 12, 2006 between junction 3A for the M40 motorway and junction 7 for the M6 motorway, a distance of 12 miles (19 km). This part of the motorway carries 120,000 vehicles each day made up of long distance traffic, local traffic, customers of Birmingham International Airport and visitors to the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) as well as higher number of accidents than the national average.

The M42 scheme was initially run as an experiment and a Highways Agency report into the first six months of the scheme scheme showed a reduction in journey times of up to 25% The journey time statistics can be broken down to show that northbound journey times were reduced by 26%, equating to an average reduction of 4 minutes as compared to the period when the variable speed limits were on but the hard shoulder was not being used and 9% southbound (equating to 1 minute) during the afternoon rush hour. The report also indicated a fall in the number of accidents from over 5 a month to 1.5 per month on average. The Agency did state that normally accident statistics should be compared over a 3 year period, so the initial results should be treated with caution. They also stated that no accidents had been caused by hard shoulder use as a normal lane. The report also stated that there had been a 10% fall in pollution and 4% fall in fuel consumption. The report also indicated a compliance rate of 98% to the indicated speed limits when using the hard shoulder. For comparison before the introduction of mandatory speed limits at road works, the compliance rate was 10% as opposed to 89% afterwards, showing a similar effect.

The Highways Agency surveyed drivers, stating that 84% felt confident using the hard shoulder, 68% felt better informed about traffic conditions and that around 66% wanted the scheme expanding to other roads.

The Secretary of State for Transport has announced that the government is to introduce the scheme onto two sections of the M6 by 2011 for £150 million. The emergency refuges will be extended to every 800 metres (0.50 mi) on the roll out. A further study into the use of ATM on the M1, M4, M20 and M25 motorways was also announced, however the Department for Transport has confirmed that the scheme will not be used on the M25 where the motorway is planned to be widened.

The scheme was initially criticised for exposing people to potentially higher risks in the event of a breakdown or emergency. Environmental campaigners also argued that the scheme would not reduce the environmental impact of motoring. The government was also criticised for introducing the scheme as a cheaper alternative to proper widening.

The Campaign for Better Transport argued that whilst it would reduce the need for widening schemes, it did nothing to reduce traffic and CO2 emissions. Friends of the Earth criticised the scheme as "widening on the cheap" and also pointed to a possible increase in vehicle emissions. The Highways Agency argue that ATM reduces the environmental impact in regards to widening as it is carried out within the existing boundaries of the motorway as well as a possible improvement in local air quality due to smoother traffic flow.

The RAC cited a study in the Netherlands that showed drivers using the hard shoulder when they were not permitted, increasing the risk of a collision for vehicles stopped. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents also expressed concern that emergency services would take longer to reach an incident. The Highways Agency rejected this concern based on the 5,000 miles of dual carriageway which doesn't have a hard shoulder. Disability groups were concerned that some drivers would not be able to access the emergency phones or even exit their vehicles, leaving them at increased risk.

Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Transport stated in an interview that this would not necessarily replace motorway widening in all circumstances, but would be another option and that the government were not using it simply a cheaper method of widening roads.

Intelligent transportation technologies

Intelligent transportation systems vary in technologies applied, from basic management systems such as car navigation; traffic signal control systems; container management systems; variable message signs; automatic number plate recognition or speed cameras to monitor applications, such as security CCTV systems; and to more advanced applications that integrate live data and feedback from a number of other sources, such as parking guidance and information systems; weather information; bridge deicing systems; and the like. Additionally, predictive techniques are being developed in order to allow advanced modeling and comparison with historical baseline data. Some of the constituent technologies typically implemented in ITS are described in the following sections.

Wireless communications

Various forms of wireless communications technologies have been proposed for intelligent transportation systems.

Radio modem communication on UHF and VHF frequencies are widely used for short and long range communication within ITS.

Short-range communications (less than 500 yards) can be accomplished using IEEE 802.11 protocols, specifically WAVE or the Dedicated Short Range Communications standard being promoted by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and the United States Department of Transportation. Theoretically, the range of these protocols can be extended using Mobile ad-hoc networks or Mesh networking.

Longer range communications have been proposed using infrastructure networks such as WiMAX (IEEE 802.16), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), or 3G. Long-range communications using these methods are well established, but, unlike the short-range protocols, these methods require extensive and very expensive infrastructure deployment. There is lack of consensus as to what business model should support this infrastructure.

Computational technologies

Recent advances in vehicle electronics have led to a move toward fewer, more capable computer processors on a vehicle. A typical vehicle in the early 2000s would have between 20 and 100 individual networked microcontroller/Programmable logic controller modules with non-real-time operating systems. The current trend is toward fewer, more costly microprocessor modules with hardware memory management and Real-Time Operating Systems. The new embedded system platforms allow for more sophisticated software applications to be implemented, including model-based process control, artificial intelligence, and ubiquitous computing. Perhaps the most important of these for Intelligent Transportation Systems is artificial intelligence.^{[citation needed]}

Floating car data/floating cellular data

Virtually every car contains one or more mobile phones. These mobile phones routinely transmit their location information to the network – even when no voice connection is established. This allows them to be used as anonymous traffic probes. As the car moves, so does the signal of the mobile phone. By measuring and analyzing network data, using triangulation, pattern matching or cell-sector statistics – in an anonymous format – the data is converted into accurate traffic flow information. With more congestion, there are more cars, more phones, and thus, more probes. In metropolitan areas, the distance between antennas is shorter and, thus, accuracy increases. No infrastructure needs to be built along the road; only the mobile phone network is leveraged. In some metropolitan areas, RFID signals from ETC transponders are used. Floating car data technology provides great advantages over existing methods of traffic measurement:

• much less expensive than sensors or cameras
• more coverage: all locations and streets
• faster to set up (no work zones) and less maintenance
• works in all weather conditions, including heavy rain

Travel time data on freeways and arterial roadways is also being collected using sensors based on Bluetooth technology^[2]. Travel times and speed are calculated by comparing the time at which a specific device signal is recorded by pairs of sensors.

Sensing technologies

Technological advances in telecommunications and information technology coupled with state-of-the-art microchip, RFID, and inexpensive intelligent beacon sensing technologies have enhanced the technical capabilities that will facilitate motorist safety benefits for Intelligent transportation systems globally. Sensing systems for ITS are vehicle and infrastructure based networked systems, e.g., Intelligent vehicle technologies. Infrastructure sensors are indestructible (such as in-road reflectors) devices that are installed or embedded on the road, or surrounding the road (buildings, posts, and signs for example) as required and may be manually disseminated during preventive road construction maintenance or by sensor injection machinery for rapid deployment of the embedded radio frequency powered (or RFID) in-ground road sensors. Vehicle-sensing systems include deployment of infrastructure-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure electronic beacons for identification communications and may also employ the benefits of CCTV automatic number plate recognition technology at desired intervals in order to increase sustained monitoring of suspect vehicles operating in critical zones.

Inductive loop detection

Inductive loops can be placed in a roadbed to detect vehicles as they pass over the loop by measuring the vehicle's magnetic field. The simplest detectors simply count the number of vehicles during a unit of time (typically 60 seconds in the United States) that pass over the loop, while more sophisticated sensors estimate the speed, length, and weight of vehicles and the distance between them. Loops can be placed in a single lane or across multiple lanes, and they work with very slow or stopped vehicles as well as vehicles moving at high-speed.

Video vehicle detection

Traffic flow measurement and automatic incident detection using video cameras is another form of vehicle detection. Since video detection systems such as those used in automatic number plate recognition do not involve installing any components directly into the road surface or roadbed, this type of system is known as a "non-intrusive" method of traffic detection. Video from black-and-white or color cameras is fed into processors that analyze the changing characteristics of the video image as vehicles pass. The cameras are typically mounted on poles or structures above or adjacent to the roadway. Most video detection systems require some initial configuration to "teach" the processor the baseline background image. This usually involves inputting known measurements such as the distance between lane lines or the height of the camera above the roadway. A single video detection processor can detect traffic simultaneously from one to eight cameras, depending on the brand and model. The typical output from a video detection system is lane-by-lane vehicle speeds, counts, and lane occupancy readings. Some systems provide additional outputs including gap, headway, stopped-vehicle detection, and wrong-way vehicle alarms.

Transportation Problem in Istanbul

Transportation has taken an important role in human life. In the early ages, types of transportation were less than today. Thus, there was not any transportation problem in cities. On the other hand, when new transportation systems were developed for increasing population, some transportation problems occurred. These problems make daily life unbearable especially in metropolitan cities such as Istanbul. It can be said that recently, demand for using transportation systems have increased in Istanbul. There are some solutions to prevent these demands from becoming a disaster. The solution to the transportation problem in Istanbul is to increase the usage of railway, seaway and roadway systems.

The first important mission of solving Istanbul’s traffic problem is railway system. First of all, transportation capacity makes the railway system more useful. Primarily, it offers more railway cars. It is reported in the article “Train” that double-decker railcars are exerted for carrying more passengers by both long and short time journey of passenger trains (2008, “Passenger Trains” section). In the light of this example, it can be said that the more people are carried by trains, the less private cars occupy roads, which will decrease traffic jam. Moreover, railway system has also lower price. “It [the railway traffic] enables transportation of bigger quantity of goods on long or medium distances at relatively low costs” (“Advantages of Railway Traffic”, 2008, “Transportation Capacity and Price Condition” section). For this reason, lower price makes more people prefer the railway system. In brief, it can clearly be understood that transportation capacity of railway system has an important role to develop solution for traffic jam.

Apart from transportation capacity, speed is an effective feature of railway system. As an example, it departs from traffic. As it is explained in “Trains”, that the railway system is either down the highway or at the same level with the highway is an advantage and this enables them to avoid traffic (2008, “Commuter Trains” section, para. 3). This makes it clear that, the railway system has no relation with the traffic that makes it fast and attractive. Furthermore, railway system has also physical features which are about electronic component. As explained in “Train” (2008) French TGV is the fastest train that has ever tested reached a 574.8 km/h speed in 2007 (“High-speed Trains” section, para. 3). From the examples given above, it can be said that the electronic components makes the trains faster that is desirable for people. All in all, it can safely be said that another important feature of railway system is fast results in finding an effective for the traffic jam.

The second important mission of solving Istanbul’s traffic problem is seaway system. Secondly, fast moving transportation enhances the ratio of usage of the seaway system. The most significant property of traffic free transportation is that it makes the travelling time shorter. Since The Istanbul Ferry Lines (IDO) has increased its vehicle capacity, which reached to 9,600 vehicles per day, it provides the passengers to cross the other side of the city in eight minutes instead of one and a half hours. A ferryboat carries 600 passengers at once (Kocabıyık, 2008, ‘‘Ferryboats Reduce Bridge Traffic’’ section, para. 1, 2). As little number of ferryboats travel no traffic occurs at sea. These ferries carry great number of passengers and vehicles and it makes the travelling time shorter. In addition, sea transportation does not make you lose time by stopping at stations. A lot of people prefer sea taxis because travelling by sea taxis is comfortable, clean and a civilized way of transportation (‘‘Istanbul Curious About Sea Taxis’’, 2008, para. 1- 3 ). The reason people look why sea taxis is because they are a civilized way of transportation. Sea taxis do not stop at any station and take people directly to where they want to go. As a result, seaway transportation saves time because it is traffic free transportation and does not stop at stations.

Aside from being fast moving transportation, seaway transportation also has a huge capacity. For example, seaway transportation carries more people than transportation by personal cars. The number of passengers who used the seaway transportation was about 5.178.688 in 1994, this number increased to 6.761.809 in 1996. This was thought to be because of rational timetable planning. The number of passengers rose to 7 million in 1997 (IBB, 2008, ‘‘Increase in the Number of Passengers’’ section, para. 1). These numbers show us that seaway transportation has a large passenger capacity and its advantages make it more preferred every year. Additionally, seaway transportation has car carriage capacity. ‘‘As of today IDO oparates [sic.] 85 vessels and 83 terminals carrying more than [sic.] 90 million passengers and 5 million vehicles annualy [sic.]’’ (‘‘About IDO’’, 2008, ‘‘Company Profile’’ section, para. 3). Sea transportation can also carry cars so people can travel with their cars in a short time and it does not cause any traffic problems. For all these reasons, people and cars in large numbers can be transported to wherever they want every day in a short time.

The last important mission of solving Istanbul’s traffic problem is roadway system. Finally, roadway systems are most useful transportation systems because of being all-accessible. The most important property of roadway systems is that it can reach everywhere. Roadway systems have a very important position in transportation owing to their property of accessing everywhere (SEDEFED, 2008, ‘‘A Look to 2008’’ section, para. 2). So, roadway systems are preferred owing to their accessibility. Moreover, the other advantage of roadway systems is common public transportation. In spite of the fact that having coasts with Marmara and Karadeniz seas, daily transportations are commonly made by using roadways. Despite of traffic jam, 89 percent of travels are made by using roadways (‘‘Istanbul Citizens Choice is Roadway’’, n.d, para. 1). Although roadway systems have disadvantages, it is still most used transportation system. In brief, it can be said that all-accessibility is one of the most important property of roadway systems and it causes roadway systems to be more preferred.

In addition to be able to reach everywhere, roadway systems are easy for trading. Primarily, it makes home delivery possible. Owing to high level of accessibility, even if roadway is not chosen system of transportation, it is used for home delivery because of its property of complementarity (“Comparison of Transportation Systems”, 2008, para. 2). Roadway systems offer making forwarding goods and cargo – to wherever it is desired easily. Furthermore, roadways are less affected by bad weather conditions. Roadway systems are affected by bad weather conditions like rain, fog and storm less than other transportation systems (“Comparison of Transportation Systems”, 2008, para. 2). Roadway systems are less affected by weather conditions because of their attribute of offering more precaution options. For all these reasons, roadway systems are most frequently used ways in trading.

In conclusion, railway, seaway and roadway systems have magnificent features to solve the transportationproblem in Istanbul. Decreasing the traffic jam, people prefer the railway system because of its speed and transportation capacity. Having a separate way which means no traffic jam, again, the seaway system is one of the most preferable ways. Because of accessibility and common usage, roadway systems affect the traffic positively. Thus, these transportation systems help to solve traffic problem and they provide people more comfortable life. Meanwhile, further research on this subject is recommended to better understand the facilities of transportation and to learn how to benefit from it in the best way.