This paper proposes innovations to address challenges emanating from road traffic congestion. Improving economies create more car owners resulting in increased automobile manufacturing, increased vehicle population giving rise to higher emission of CO 2 resulting in traffic congestion. Congested traffic has idling vehicles which emit higher CO 2 and pollution. Besides, traffic congestion increases turnaround time, delivery time, commuting time and related logistical aspects. Commuting time negatively impacts working hours. Unless the traffic congestion is mitigated, the economy will take a beating creating a vicious ecology cycle. Building new roads, bridges or reconditioning of infrastructure is not always the best possible solutions. Efficient traffic management is a key to country’s economic growth. Various analytical models are employed to study, appreciate traffic congestion. The paper studies these models to infer that real time approach is the only solution. Several approaches are being worked on and few commercial systems too are available. These systems provide traffic information for course correction. However, it has latency and hence deviates from real time environment. Traffic congestion being highly dynamic in nature, it necessitates real time solution with real time inputs. It is proposed to integrate Real time traffic data with the traffic signal thus modulating the cycle timings at every junction. Deviation from static asymmetric cycle timing is implemented by assigning green phases based on density of vehicles. With minimalistic infrastructure and negligible incremental cost, the paper not only proposes to address traffic congestion but also paves the way for capturing traffic offenses, vehicle tracking and toll collection. The research is imminently realizable and makes a strong case for a PPP (Public Private Partnership) project.
The location accuracy from Global Positioning System (GPS) device is continuously improving; from 15 meters we have accuracy of 3 meters on systems that deploy WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System). GPS uses at least three satellite data and communicates with GPS enabled receivers. WAAS uses a network of ground-based reference stations. Measurements from ground based stations along with GPS are sent to the geostationary WAAS satellites. WAAS satellites then sent the corrected data which is received by the WAAS enabled GPS devices.
PNDs (Personal Navigation Devices) are best suited for traffic application. The advantages are large displays, keyboards, arms length viewing and usability while driving. Besides, PND have room to accommodate speed, upcoming street, time of arrival and other parameters. However, in spite of these factors smart phones are preferred over PND. The mapping assistance is available through mapping giants like TeleNav, NavTeq (Navigation Technologies), Google, AT & T. The PND based navigation systems is available at USD $70 with a yearly update cost of USD $70 approx whereas the smart phone besides the device cost & data connectivity charges is available for USD $50 for the navigation app. Analog traffic receivers have an update frequency of 300 seconds. Garmin live traffic updates 1000 messages every 2 minutes on smart phones. Garmin devices with High Definition (HD) digital offer navigation services with live traffic updates for approx. more than USD $300. The traffic update frequency is 30 seconds.
Motion X GS drive offers community contributed road alerts and reporting including accidents, hazards, police location, weather, and more. Tom-Tom pro- vides traffic information by integrating variety of traditional data sources like governmental or third party data through road sensors or through mobile phone users. The system merges this information, analyses it and sends the data to users every three minutes.
In short, data come from millions of Garmin device owners, millions of cellular phone owners, incident reports, live information through radio feeds, news stations, NAVTEQ Traffic Supply and historical traffic data from each of these agencies. Some of the systems require downloading with periodic refreshing and work without the need for continuous connectivity.
Proposed efficient Intelligent Traffic Control System (ITCS) system [
Defines guidelines for Anthropocentric design for self-driving vehicles [
Google traffic displays traffic in real time by acquiring data from its users and calculating the speed [
GNSS-1 is the first generation system, which integrates existing GPS with other technologies. In USA, the satellite based component is the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), in Europe it is the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), and in Japan it is the Multi-Functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS). GNSS-2 is the second generation of system. These systems collate vehicle velocities. Commercial system like Tom Tom & NavTeq capture PVT (Position, Velocity & Time) to provide traffic information.
Academicians, researchers and corporations have been working on traffic control systems with a view to optimize the traffic signal phases, reduce signal idle time and address traffic congestion. The technology is based on ATCS (Ada- ptive Traffic Control System). The systems are evolving and continuously improvising to mitigate the traffic congestion problems. Before considering Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS) deployment, it is important to understand the reasons an ATCS is required.
Contemporary SystemsThe software is based on Windows and OS and all of them have application software of their own. The traffic controllers used are Siemens M 50 series or 2070, Peek 3000E, Model 170, SITRAFFIC C8xx, C9xx, Econolite ASC/2 and NEMA AWA Delta 3N. The installation cost of ATCS per junction is approx. USD $65,000.
SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimization Technique) is a real time application for controlling traffic signals based on ATCS (Adaptive Traffic Control System) [
SCAT (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System) is an ATCS using complex algorithms to generate traffic signal phases so as to minimize delays [
Urban Traffic Optimization by Integrated Automation (UTOPIA) is integrated with SPOT to account to changes at the network level (Mauro and DiTaranto 1990). The parameters considered are vehicle detection, vehicle flow rate, traffic intensity, speed, road occupancy, density and type of vehicle. FHWA (Federal High-Way Administration), USA, developed ACS Lite which is widely deployable, at much reduced cost than traditional installation, operations and maintenance [
The comparison of the two systems with largest market share is tabulated in
Dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) is a subject of interest for the last decade and is yet maturing. The traffic networks are probabilistic and uncertain, various models were proposed. Broadly these models, model travelers’ decision making, probabilistic travel time and random perception errors of individual travelers. Lighthill, Whitham, Richard introduced the continuum model (LWR model) based on fluid dynamics [
The model suggests preferred speed for vehicles. It is flawed, because, when passing is allowed, the preferred speed for each vehicle varies over time. Also the desired speeds among a group of vehicles vary.
PW Model: Payne-Whitham higher model introduces additional terms in the equation of motion proposed by LRW model, Navier-Stokes equation of motion for one-dimensional compressible flow with pressure and a relaxation term [