Wireless communications to road users and within urban traffic management and control systems

Author(s):  
R.S. Burton
Author(s):  
Stephen D. Clark ◽  
Matthew W. Page

Since the 1950s, cycling has been a declining mode of travel in the United Kingdom. During this same period, sophisticated techniques for managing traffic in the urban environment have been developed. Given these circumstances, the presence of cyclists is often ignored by urban traffic control (UTC) systems, which are dominated by consideration of the flows and journey times of private motorized vehicles. Authorities are enthusiastic about the promotion of cycling as a mode of travel and are looking to see if this can be assisted by use of traffic management systems. The fact that cyclists and potential cyclists vary considerably in their abilities and performance, as well as in their attitudes to timesaving and safety, is highlighted. The context of the problem is set, the specific issue of detection of cycles is examined, the potential for implementation of priority measures in different types of UTC systems is discussed, and the issue is illustrated with some actual installations. Limited European evidence would suggest that only minimum effort is needed to take explicit account of cycling when a UTC system is being implemented. This supports the idea that cyclists can be given a higher degree of consideration within a UTC system without incurring significant additional costs. Only when cycling achieves a near-dominant proportion of the trips within a city and is growing in volume, as is the case in China, is explicit consideration to cyclists given.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (22) ◽  
pp. 7705
Author(s):  
Selim Reza ◽  
Hugo S. Oliveira ◽  
José J. M. Machado ◽  
João Manuel R. S. Tavares

With the rapid growth and development of cities, Intelligent Traffic Management and Control (ITMC) is becoming a fundamental component to address the challenges of modern urban traffic management, where a wide range of daily problems need to be addressed in a prompt and expedited manner. Issues such as unpredictable traffic dynamics, resource constraints, and abnormal events pose difficulties to city managers. ITMC aims to increase the efficiency of traffic management by minimizing the odds of traffic problems, by providing real-time traffic state forecasts to better schedule the intersection signal controls. Reliable implementations of ITMC improve the safety of inhabitants and the quality of life, leading to economic growth. In recent years, researchers have proposed different solutions to address specific problems concerning traffic management, ranging from image-processing and deep-learning techniques to forecasting the traffic state and deriving policies to control intersection signals. This review article studies the primary public datasets helpful in developing models to address the identified problems, complemented with a deep analysis of the works related to traffic state forecast and intersection-signal-control models. Our analysis found that deep-learning-based approaches for short-term traffic state forecast and multi-intersection signal control showed reasonable results, but lacked robustness for unusual scenarios, particularly during oversaturated situations, which can be resolved by explicitly addressing these cases, potentially leading to significant improvements of the systems overall. However, there is arguably a long path until these models can be used safely and effectively in real-world scenarios.


Author(s):  
Michael J. Smith ◽  
Yanling Xiang ◽  
Robert A. Yarrow ◽  
Mustapha Ghali

Author(s):  
C. Schürmann ◽  
D. Geiger ◽  
M. Picha ◽  
R. Thomas

Abstract. Digital traffic management solutions are essential for the effective management of the continuing growth of road traffic. However, technical possibilities for implementing traffic management strategies by Traffic Control Centres are limited to a strategic network. At the same time, modern mobility apps from routing services offer road users many options to get informed and guided. The latter usually work independently from traffic management strategies of public authorities. Thus, different route recommendations not only lead to uncertainty of road users, but ultimately to a reduction in the effectiveness of the public traffic management strategies. A direct information exchange between both systems does not yet exist. This however would be a key to more efficient traffic management.City2Navigation therefore developed a technical concept for a nationwide implementation of a digital data exchange service (C2N service) to link public traffic management with routing services of private vendors. This service fills the gap between both group of actors, thereby serving as a crucial building block for digital traffic management in response to the goals of European and national frameworks for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).The C2N service not only promotes the cooperation of public authorities with private routing services, it also offers a variety of opportunities to develop new business models. It is a complement to C2C and C2X communication solutions in road transport, ultimately also enabling future possibilities for municipalities to conduct efficient and sustainable traffic management.


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