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.


Related Content

  • April 25, 2012
    Improving traffic flow with automated urban traffic control
    Alterations to traffic signals and variable message signs are being activated to reduce congestion as soon as it occurs, through a pioneering fully automatic UTC system. Jon Masters reports In the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley in England, strategies for dealing with traffic congestion have been devised from analysis of queue data, then made to work automatically: “This represents the future of ITS for urban traffic control,” says Siemens Consultancy Services senior engineer David Carr. Over a career span
  • January 24, 2012
    Integrated corridor management aids multi-modal transport planning
    Telvent’s Jorgen Pedersen and Tip Franklin discuss how integrated corridor management can create synergies within a multimodal transportation infrastructure, while promoting modal shift. The mantra ‘We cannot build ourselves out of congestion’ has long been stated and too often ignored. But with the economy in dire straits, funding deficits and pressure to reduce governmental spending, this is now being taken seriously by almost everyone who has an interest in the flow of traffic. By ‘everyone’ we include
  • April 10, 2014
    Imperatives to shape extended mobility ecosystems of tomorrow
    New survey shows cities ill prepared to meet the increasing demand for urban mobility. Most of the world’s cities are ill-equipped to cope with the predicted increase in demands on urban travel – that is the stark finding of the second ‘Future of Urban Mobility’ study carried out by global management consultancy Arthur D. Little. Compiled in association with the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), the survey examines and rates urban mobility in 84 cities worldwide against an extended set o
  • December 4, 2014
    Global navigation reference point to test zero emission driverless vehicles
    A successful consortium led by the UK’s Transport research Laboratory (TRL) has been selected by Innovate UK to deliver the GATEway project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment), one of three projects awarded to test driverless vehicles in UK urban locations. The US$12.5 million project will see three trials of different types of zero emission automated vehicles within an innovative, technology-agnostic testing environment set in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The ‘prime meridian’ was establi