A56 DRIVER INFORMATION SCHEME

INTRODUCTION
The A56 between Sale and Altrincham is a busy urban dual carriageway in the Greater Manchester area, approximately 5 kilometres in length.

REQUIREMENT
Trafford Council identified a requirement to determine average link-based journey times along a section of the A56 with the possibility of feeding this information back to road users to help reduce congestion at peak times.

SOLUTION
To achieve this they approached the Urban Traffic Control (UTC) section of Transport for Greater Manchester to advise them of what technology was available that could meet their needs.

The Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Group of the UTC Unit consulted TDC Systems as a technology partner to help them design an innovative scheme to collect journey time information but with the added benefit of being able to display processed journey times on roadside Variable Message Signs (VMS).

The Variable Message Signs were installed at strategic points at the start of the route. This would allow drivers to make informed choices relating to their journey whic h could contribute to reducing congestion and thus improving journey times along the route.

In the process of delivering this goal other benefits would likely be achieved including reduced emissions and improved air quality, improved productivity and cost savings to the local community.
For the Driver Information System to provide reliable real-time information it requires accurate up-to-the-minute journey times provided by traffic sensing technology. Due to current economic factors this technology needed to be low cost as well as robust and scalable and also make use of existing infrastruction where available.

The solution was the HI-TRAC® Blue Bluetooth Journey Time System from TDC Systems.
 
The HI-TRAC Blue detects the Media Access Control (MAC) address of Bluetooth activated devices (e.g. mobile phones, in car navigation kits and hands-free kits) travelling east and west through the A56 detection corridor. This data is sent in real-time via GPRS communications to the UTC hosted C2 Traffic Database. A Journey Time Matching Engine determines average journey times across each link from matched MAC address data. The C2 Database then exports the data to the UTC Common Database which can then display the journey time dynamically on the VMS.

The cost savings achieved by using this approach, when compared to the alternative Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, is considerable.This means more HI-TRAC Blue Detectors can be installed along the route. The shorter the route section that is being covered the higher the level of granularity within the data. This makes it easier to determine which sections of the road suffer from poorer jouney times and reduced speed which may indicate congestion.

Darren Holt of TfGM states: “We are very pleased with the progress of this scheme to date and the support provided by TDC Systems. The data available from the HI-TRSC Blue detectors seems to be very robust and reliable. We are now at the stage whereby the link between C2 and the Common Database has been developed and tested and we hope to be displaying dynamic information on the VMS soon.”

SUMMARY
The HI-TRAC® Blue is a cost effective and easily deployable solution to provide real-time vehicle journey time measurements and which is currently being used as park of the TfGM UTC managed Intelligent Transport System toolbox.

Analysis of this data from individual links along a route may be used to alter traffic signal timings which could reduce congestion and improve journey times.

Over time it is anticipated that this data may be used to determine route based journey selection which could support the development of trip matrices. These state of the art systems may also provide data that could be used for traffic modelling and may support a more detailed understanding of congestion patterns as well as the impact of incidents, accidents and events. These systems could also help Traffic Managers understand the impact of both short and long-term strategic interventions which could enable them to better manage traffic on their roads.

Ultimately this data could provide essential feedback to urban planners to improve road capacity by encouraging a modal shift to more sustatinable public transport, car pooling and other alternatives to the car.

We are very pleased with the progress of this scheme to date and the support provided by TDC Systems.

Darren Holt of TfGM

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