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

  • Moscow pins hopes on V2X
    March 18, 2020
    A new transport strategy is aimed at creating conditions for the introduction of new ITS developments within Moscow – and 5G and V2X are on the agenda
  • e-Call emergency service doesn't go far enough
    January 30, 2012
    eCall misses the point and is only a tacit acknowledgement that the road safety issue has not yet been adequately addressed, according to FEMA's Aline Delhaye. According to the Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations (FEMA), the European Commission's (EC's) ambitions for eCall implementation are premature and fail to take account of all road users' needs or of technological progress elsewhere.
  • ‘Free’ power for signs, shelters and so much more
    March 17, 2016
    David Crawford looks at the sunny side of the street. Solar power has been relatively slow in entering the transport sector, but a current blossoming of activity bodes well for the large-scale harnessing of an alternative energy that is zero-emission at source and, in practical terms, infinitely renewable. Traffic management and traveller information systems, and actual vehicles, are all emerging as areas for deployment. Meanwhile roads themselves are being viewed as new-style, fossil fuel-free ‘power stati
  • Flir boosts traffic flow with TrafiBot AI camera
    May 13, 2024
    It uses two proprietary AI models developed from millions of Flir-captured images