Skip to main content

TRL on track with uTraq

Given the recent position from the European Court of Justice on nitrogen dioxides (NO2) levels within UK cities, TRL has made a timely announcement to say that it is leading a European Space Agency demonstration project called uTraq (Urban Traffic Management and Air Quality) with partners the University of Leicester and Transport Simulation Systems.
November 24, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

 Given the recent position from the European Court of Justice on nitrogen dioxides (NO2) levels within UK cities, 491 TRL has made a timely announcement to say that it is leading a European Space Agency demonstration project called uTraq (Urban Traffic Management and Air Quality) with partners the University of Leicester and 2195 Transport Simulation Systems.

uTraq integrates with the existing traffic management systems of urban and municipal authorities, enabling them to enhance their management of traffic flow and to improve air quality, as well as reducing traffic delays and congestion.  NO2 is one of the major transportation related emissions which is addressed by the uTraq system, which TRL says has the potential to deliver an effective and coordinated approach to the reduction of nitrogen dioxide levels within UK cities.

Current traffic management systems do not have air quality information to drive their strategy decisions so cannot support emissions based policies. uTraq breaks new ground by bringing air quality and weather monitoring systems, modelling / traffic forecasting tools and adaptive traffic management systems into one single user-centric, intelligent, integrated solution.

TRL is leading the demonstration of the uTraq system across three local authorities in the UK as part of the project and is currently seeking authorities who would be interested in being part of a second wave of demonstration pilots.  

Initially, uTraq will integrate with the TRL SCOOT traffic management system, but it is designed with a system architecture that can support other traffic management systems in future developments.


For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New approach to data handling aids development of smarter cities
    January 11, 2013
    David Crawford has been to the Irish capital to see a potent memorandum of understanding at work. An imaginative collaboration between the world’s largest IT company and one of Europe’s smaller capital cities is demonstrating a new approach to data handling that could have far reaching implications for urban public transport worldwide. A close working relationship between IBM and Dublin City Council (DCC) dates from 2010. The IT giant was looking for a local transport authority as partner for testing IBM’s
  • New approach to data handling aids development of smarter cities
    January 11, 2013
    David Crawford has been to the Irish capital to see a potent memorandum of understanding at work. An imaginative collaboration between the world’s largest IT company and one of Europe’s smaller capital cities is demonstrating a new approach to data handling that could have far reaching implications for urban public transport worldwide. A close working relationship between IBM and Dublin City Council (DCC) dates from 2010. The IT giant was looking for a local transport authority as partner for testing IBM’s
  • A carbon free and accident free Europe by 2015?
    February 2, 2012
    By 2050, the Europe Commission aims to make transport in Europe carbon- and accident-free. Between now and then, however, a significant technological development and deployment effort is needed. Here, Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, talks about what's being done. In many respects, COOPERS, CVIS and SAFESPOT, set up by the European Commission (EC) to explore the potential of cooperative infrastructure systems, are already legacy projects. Between them, the three devel
  • Venkat Sumantran: ‘Smart cities are more hype than reality’
    November 23, 2018
    For all the talk of smart cities, investment in systems lags significantly behind organic expansion in most places. Andrew Stone talks to Venkat Sumantran, who has been looking at how to create a coherent framework which could help authorities answer multiple mobility questions Two megatrends are posing unprecedented challenges to those trying to keep people moving around the world’s urban areas now - and in the years and decades to come. The first is rapid urbanisation. One in six of us lived in urban a