TRL powers UTC with SCOOT 7 at Highways UK

TRL demonstrated the capabilities of its new urban traffic control (UTC) system, which uses the SCOOT 7 adaptive traffic control system, at Highways UK this week.
November 8, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

The company says the UTC system - powered by SCOOT 7 (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique) – will respond automatically to traffic fluctuations, thereby removing the need for signal plans.

Mike Guerin, TRL's head of sales and marketing, told 1846 ITS International the system has been designed to be more user-friendly for people who may not be experts in SCOOT.

“The data is free and open, allowing local authorities and customers to reduce the total cost of ownership for a UTC SCOOT system. On the other end of the scale, we are comfortable deploying the solution to big cities in the UK and globally,” Guerin adds.

SCOOT 7's capabilities in bus priority and cycle and pedestrian optimisation are expected to provide UTC users with the ability to manually trigger gating of traffic signals.

TRL’s professional services consultant Mark Crabtree says there is also a feature that allows users to do “smarter things” with external data sources in areas such as pollution monitoring.

“When the pollution hits a certain level, you can change the strategy of SCOOT to try and mitigate against that,” he continues. “Another example would be a car park message sign which tells people the car park is full or there is congestion on the way, allowing users to choose another car park to get to their destination quicker.”

The UTC can be deployed on an organisation’s chosen cloud platform and will be available as a subscription solution in the first quarter of 2020.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Feasibility study to look at use of dynamic wireless power transfer on UK roads
    March 13, 2015
    The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has been commissioned by the Highways Agency to undertake a feasibility study into whether dynamic wireless power transfer (WPT) technology can be used on England’s motorways and major A roads, the Strategic Road Network, to prepare for and potentially encourage, greater EV take-up. This study is the first part in a much larger programme of research and trialling for dynamic WPT technology to be undertaken in the UK. TRL was selected to deliver the feasibility st
    Read More
  • Dutch strike public/private balance to introduce C-ITS services
    November 15, 2017
    Connected-ITS applications are due to appear on a nation-wide scale this summer, through the Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership – if all goes to plan. Jon Masters reports. The Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership (TTP) looks almost too good to be true: an artificial market set up and supported by national, regional and local government to accelerate deployment of Connected ITS (C-ITS) applications. If it does have any serious flaws, these are going to become apparent quite soon, because the first
    Read More
  • Challenges and benefits of adaptive signal control
    April 23, 2013
    Delcan’s Joe Lam, who managed the first computerised signal system in the world, provides an expert insight into adaptive signal control. There are no gadgets in the world that regulate our daily behaviour as much as traffic signals, except perhaps our mobile phones. It has been estimated that the daily commuter goes through at least 10 signals on his journey to work. However, unlike mobile phones, traffic signals cannot be ignored or switched off by their daily users, at least not without legal consequence
    Read More
  • Cities get road priorities right
    March 22, 2022
    Cities including Paris, Milan and London have all announced serious expansions to their bicycling infrastructure over the last few years. The era of active travel is here, finds Alan Dron
    Read More

Highlighted Content