Page 23 - TT Magazine Aug-Sep 2018

ITS

ur Smart Cities programme is now Most demand management
nearly four years old. A number of
cities have already implemented ITS measures require dynamic
systems or are in the process of doing logic that works across
Oso at the cost of taxpayers’ money. multiple Smart City systems.
It is in public interest to make sure that these
systems are put to effective use and achieve the It is imperative that we
desired benefits, the key outcome being reduced provide a platform for
congestion and associated benefits such as reduced
pollution. We now need to look at how we could such functionality to be
achieve these results using the technology that is implemented as the Smart
currently deployed. City ecosystems evolve
Systems in the mobility domain that are typically
installed in Smart Cities are the following: Area over time in order to realise
Traffic Control System (ATCS), Red-Light Violation maximum returns from the
Detection System (RLVD), Speed-Limit Violation investment.
Detection System (SVDS), Automatic Traffic Counters
and Classifiers (ATCC), Automatic Number Plate
Recognition (ANPR) cameras, Smart Parking Systems,
Bus ITS System consisting of on-bus ITS devices and to either increase road capacity or reduce the number
live bus information at bus stops and bus stands, of vehicles during peak hours. It is well established
Variable Message Signs (VMS) and citizen apps. Each that the former strategy will not lead to long-term
of the system achieves efficiency within its scope. For solutions due to the generation of induced travel
example, the ATCS system optimises signal timings demand. The Smart City systems aims to reduce
such that the total vehicle delay is minimised and the congestion through the second strategy, for the most
traffic flow at junctions is maximised. However, there part. A high level view of how this could be achieved
is limited interaction between different systems in the is shown in the figure.
Smart City ecosystem.
ATCS is the only Smart City system that aims to
The Smart City ecosystem consists of an Integrated
Command and Control (ICC) software that integrates improve capacity. Traffic signals are basically a time-
the individual systems in a Smart City. Some Smart sharing scheme for the shared space at junctions
Cities are also implementing Integrated Traffic and ATCS dynamically manages the utilisation of the
Management System platforms that integrates shared space based on real-time traffic, thus improving
systems in the mobility domain in addition to the the capacity. However, ATCS has to be operated
ICC. At the current level of maturity, the ICC and in conjunction with robust demand management
ITMS merely integrate key data from various Smart procedures in order to reduce congestion.
City systems to provide live dashboards. There is little Key aspects of demand management aim to reduce
cross-system integration logic implemented to achieve the number of vehicles in critical road sections when
operational efficiency. There is a clear potential to they are oversaturated. This can be achieved by
achieve higher levels of efficiency in doing so. persuading the travelling public to change their time
Let us take step back and a look at how we could of travel, change their travel route and shift to public
reduce congestion and then see how we can implement transport from private vehicles. Smart City ITS system
these concepts using system level functionality at the can play an effective role in all of the above. Simply by
ICC or ITMS level. Traffic congestion is due to traffic providing information about live traffic conditions and
demand exceeding the supply. Simply put, there average traffic conditions at different times of the day,
are too many vehicles on the road compared to the travellers can see the benefit of changed departure
capacity during peak hours. Traffic delay increases times. Those with flexibility in daily schedules will alter
exponentially as demand approaches capacity, as we their departure times for faster journeys. Citizen mobile
know from queuing theory, resulting in severe delays apps, and even Smart City and third party websites, are
during peak hours. To reduce congestion, we need appropriate channels to communicate this information

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