Skip to main content

Ireland to deploy ITS technology to save lives

In the wake of the European Parliament’s approval of the mandatory installation of automatic emergency phones in all cars and vans by 2015, the Irish Times says Ireland’s National Roads Authority (NRA) is to deploy a range of intelligent transport systems to improve travel times, warn drivers of weather, dangers and delays ahead and automatically notify emergency services in the event of crashes or even the potential for crashes. The NRA has developed a motorway traffic control centre, based at the Dubli
March 18, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
In the wake of the European Parliament’s approval of the mandatory installation of automatic emergency phones in all cars and vans by 2015, the Irish Times says Ireland’s National Roads Authority (NRA) is to deploy a range of intelligent transport systems to improve travel times, warn drivers of weather, dangers and delays ahead and automatically notify emergency services in the event of crashes or even the potential for crashes.

The NRA has developed a motorway traffic control centre, based at the Dublin Port Tunnel offices, to monitor more than 65 million journeys a year made on the motorway network.  Managed by port tunnel operator 7319 Egis, the control centre will supply information to the NRA phone app which gives motorists route information including about weather, travel time, crashes, road conditions and potential diversions. The app also links to CCTV cameras based on the main inter-urban routes.

The NRA plans to test Bluetooth-enabled traffic monitoring, where Bluetooth devices in passing vehicles automatically provide data to roadside sensors, feeding into the control centre’s information on travel times.

The control centre is also developing systems that can detect the speeds of slowing traffic slowing and interpret whether this is caused by increasing traffic volume, or the possibility of a crash. The systems will also detect and warn operators of wrong-way drivers and cycles or pedestrians on a motorway.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Do satellites provide a heavenly view of tolling’s future?
    December 16, 2014
    Satellite-based tolling opens up new options for authorities and can be integrated with DSRC systems as David Crawford discovers. As the proud custodian of the European Union (EU)’s longest road network covered by a single (truck) charging scheme – and the only one to include all major roads - Slovakia has become the continent’s poster-nation for the virtues of GNSS/CN (Global Navigation Satellite System/Cellular Network)-based tolling. It is also proved to be a very fast implementer. Speaking at the 2014 I
  • Driving forward cooperative intersection safety applications
    July 24, 2012
    Gregory Davis, FHWA, John Harding, NHTSA, and Mike Schagrin, ITS Joint Program Office (RITA) chart the course for cooperative intersection safety applications being pursued as part of the IntelliDrive programme. Crashes at intersections accounted for 8,703 highway fatalities in the US in 2008. Research and development is moving forward on IntelliDriveSM safety applications designed to help drivers avoid intersection accidents. These new safety systems could substantially drive down the highway death and inj
  • IBTTA prepares for Dublin Global Summit
    October 19, 2022
    Gathering of road tolling executives takes place in Irish capital on 23-25 October
  • Germany's approach to adaptive traffic control
    February 3, 2012
    Jürgen Mück, Siemens AG, describes the three-level approach taken in Germany to adaptive network control