It’s all about data
MOTION, MATRIX, TUC, FCD, GPS, ISA, all these somehow enigmatic tokens tend to achieve the improvement of traffic flow. What all the systems have in common: they consider traffic as a kind of huge organism in which every cell is constantly moving.
These movements produce data – the crucial point is to collect these data, to draw a conclusion and to pass the results on to the traffic participants.
Of course, modern traffi c management has a highly complicated technical background. But one of the basic ideas is quite simple: It consists in the use of existing structures. Best example: Floating Car Data (FCD), and as every city has buses, the next step is obvious. Within this system you benefi t of GPS-the data from “elements” that are already integrated in the traffic. So there is no particular need for a complex and expensive installation of new devices. Data are simply delivered from e.g. the Taxi fl eets or other commercial fleets.
... AND MAKE IT VISIBLE
All systems collect a vast array of data by several ways: by loop and microwave detectors, by cameras, by Floating Car Data-GPS systems
etc. Up to the development of modern means of communication all these data were not directly accesible for the single traffic participant. Only the traffi c light preemption gave the driver the
It’s all about data. impression that there “must be something behind”. Nowadays mobile phone, Personal Digital Assistants, modern smartphones and of course the internet enable the traffic participant to get a direct and real time impression of the traffic situation in an area.
WHAT HAS TO BE DONE NEXT
The advantages for the end user is obvious: better traffi c fl ow allows better route planning and better route planning reduces travel time. So everything is fi ne? Not in every way yet. Tasks are certainly not fulfi lled with the collection and depiction of data. On the one side the data sources are sometimes very heterogenous which demands a highly complex fi ltering process, on the other hand, all this information has to be embedded in the whole traffi c concept of an area. Thus some systems are still under development, some have to be improved and optimized. But the goal ia already on the horizon...
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