Automatic Traffic Counters (ATC) support the development of an Integrated Transport System (ITS) by providing real-time traffic data to the government authorities and the public. This contributes to some of the following benefits:
- Improved Travel Experience (e.g. improving journey time reliability)
- Delivering Policy (providing information on Modal Shift from Cars to Public Transport and Bicycles/Pedestrian)
- Demonstrating Best Value (e.g. revenue saving by improved road safety and shared roadside equipment between agencies and partners)
- Reducing Accidents (KSI killed and serious injury reduction by better road policing)
- Improved Accessibility (SMS journey time information)
- Changing Travel Behaviour in a response to Climate Change (by providing timely and appropriate information before they choose to go out on their journey)
TDC Systems have successfully deployed a UK wide network of HI-TRAC® Real Time Traffic Monitoring systems using the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network.
GPRS is a stepping stone towards third generation wireless communications and its deployment provides the means to create new services where a fixed telephony network infrastructure is not available, or otherwise not viable.
The TDC range of HI-TRAC traffic counting, classifying and weigh-in-motion systems utilise GPRS packet based communications allowing vehicle traffic data to be transmitted and received across a mobile telephone network and internet.
This development fulfils the needs of both traffic planning departments for statistical historical traffic data and also other requirements for real time traffic data such as feeding traffic flow data via adaptors to the UTC common database.
The TDC range of traffic detectors all support GPRS real time data transmission. This includes inroad loop and axle classifiers and the non-intrusive HI-TRAC Blue MAC Address Journey Time System and Viking Radar products.
Data is transmitted from the roadside to a web server and database. The data can be hosted by TDC or by the client. Adaptors are available to send the data from the client hosted database to a UTMC Common Database as in the case of TFGM (Transport for Greater Manchester).
