Transportation Engineering>Intelligent Transportation Systems
 
In engineering practice, professionals are always looking for new and improved ways to handle problems and do things. This is especially true in vehicle transportation, where for years the answer to congestion has been to simply lay more blacktop.
 
Today's modern urban environment does not support this action, however. Inner cities have severe congestion and no more room to expand. The answer then becomes to improve the efficiency of the transportation corridors that currently exist: Enter Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).
 
ITS is the term for the next generation of computer controlled transportation corridors, in both urban and rural areas, as well as on freeways/highways. Also known as Advanced Transportation Management Systems (ATMS), these conglomerates operate a series of video and roadway loop detectors, variable message signs, network signal and ramp meter timing schedules, and roadway incident control strategies from one central location to respond to traffic conditions in 'Real-time'.
 
This allows the computerized system and operators to change and adjust timings in response to events and traffic as they occur. By adjusting road conditions, and eventually having the ability to disseminate traffic condition information to individual vehicles, driver awareness is increased, corridor
efficiency is increased, and thus congestion can be reduced and existing roadways made more usable.
 

ITS has been installed and successfully used in Atlanta (1992 Olympics) and several cities in California, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington. ITS is currently under construction in Salt Lake City and Phoenix as well.

 

ITS makes use of several new technologies to accomplish it's data collection and congestion-reduction goals. These include the following:
Magnetic Loop Detectors in road pavement - vehicle speed, length & type, usage.
 

Video / Autoscope Detectors - queue length, incident verification.
Vehicle Identification - journey time, timing scheme verification.
Intersection Signal Control - timing, actuated signal response, priority vehicle passage.
Incident Control - emergency vehicle dispatch, traffic re-routing.
Communications - information dispersal to vehicles, variable signs, internet, radio.

 
Through the use of computers, whole corridors and networks of surface streets and highways can be modeled with new timing schemes or ITS variations, to predict their impact on the existing traffic
before the changes are ever implemented!!
 
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