Highways England showcases progress on high tech corridor project

Highways England is leading a project to establish a high tech corridor on the A2/M2 in Kent which will allow specially-equipped vehicles to interact with roadside infrastructure. As part of the initiative, Highways England hosted a week-long Testfest event in Chatham, Kent, this week, showing how test vehicles receive information on road conditions, road works and the time left for traffic lights to change to green via a wireless network. Jo White, head of Highways England’s intelligent transport system
October 12, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
8101 Highways England is leading a project to establish a high tech corridor on the A2/M2 in Kent which will allow specially-equipped vehicles to interact with roadside infrastructure.


As part of the initiative, Highways England hosted a week-long Testfest event in Chatham, Kent, this week, showing how test vehicles receive information on road conditions, road works and the time left for traffic lights to change to green via a wireless network.

Jo White, head of Highways England’s intelligent transport systems group, says: “We are looking at ITS G5, a short-range Wi-Fi technology, and cellular technology, and are interested in how they deliver information to the vehicle.”  

As part of Testfest, ITS International travelled in a trial run of a specially-equipped people carrier along a section of the M2, which demonstrated how information is received by the onboard unit and displayed as icons on a screen behind the wheel.

For example, 60mph icons serve as a consistent reminder of the correct speed limit, while roadworks warnings can be followed by lane divert messages.

Highways England says the screens can help reduce the probability of drivers missing information displayed on roadside signs. It also provides drivers and fleet managers with information to make real-time decisions could potentially improve traffic flow along the corridor.

White believes the speed limit information could provide Highways England with more flexibility of where and when to sign information, potentially freeing it from dependence on physical infrastructure in the future.

The M2 demonstration included a simulated border in which the driver received information between two areas labelled Country A and Country B.

White says drivers can receive information from their ‘home country’ and then pass over the border and continue to receive relevant journey data. This is achieved using the driver’s existing service provider to transmit the data from the country to the in-vehicle device.

Other partners involved in the project include the 1837 Department for Transport, 1466 Transport for London and 2222 Kent County Council. This consortium is part of InterCor, a European Union programme which aims to test services which work across borders, connecting the Netherlands, France and Belgium.

The project is scheduled to be complete in 2019.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Integrated passenger transport system for Luxembourg
    December 20, 2012
    Luxembourg’s integrated passenger transport system is to benefit from a new system for control, passenger information and electronic fare collection (e-ticketing). Init has been awarded a contract by the Luxembourg transport association to equip thirty-four private and three public transport companies with the system over the next three years. The contract also includes control centres and providing around 920 vehicles with hardware and software.
    Read More
  • The rise and rise of robo-car
    July 23, 2019
    When it comes to driverless cars, there are many variables – but one thing is for certain: autonomous driving will have a significant impact on vehicle design, says Andreas Herrmann The transition to autonomous vehicles (AVs) means that many of the factors which have shaped automotive design for the past 130 years no longer apply. At present, the design of a car is largely determined by the anticipated direction of travel: the car’s silhouette immediately shows where the front and back are. Driverless ve
    Read More
  • Clearview launches Journey Time Monitoring System
    December 14, 2018
    Clearview Intelligence has launched its Journey Time Monitoring System which uses crowdsourced data to generate automatic traffic alerts for temporary and permanent routes. Paul Bates, head of product management for Clearview, says the system – which analyses anonymous GPS-determined locations transmitted by mobile phone and satellite navigation users - removes the need for installing and maintaining roadside technology. Operators can launch the application from a computer and receive data in minutes.
    Read More
  • GMV renews video surveillance system on Barcelona’s metro network
    April 12, 2018
    Barcelona Metropolitan Transport (TMB) has selected GMV to upgrade the on-board video surveillance system on 149 metro trains to improve communication across the city’s metro network. The uniform video-surveillance system will run on lines L1-L5 and L11 of the city’s metro network. For the project, 300 video recorders will be supplied along with 300 communication nodes, 600 antennae, 760 video coders, 740 Ethernet switches and 540 IP cameras. The system will also be integrated with existing CCTV system
    Read More

Highlighted Content