Skip to main content

UK drivers get real time traffic information boost

The UK Highways Agency is trialling a system to add commercially available traffic data to its existing sources to monitor how well traffic is flowing on England's motorways and strategic roads. Similar data sources are already used by satellite navigation devices, smartphones, and applications like Google maps. Better real-time data will allow agency staff to respond more quickly to incidents and identify delays and communicate them to drivers so they can take alternative routes if necessary.
August 9, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The 1841 UK Highways Agency is trialling a system to add commercially available traffic data to its existing sources to monitor how well traffic is flowing on England's motorways and strategic roads. Similar data sources are already used by satellite navigation devices, smartphones, and applications like Google maps. Better real-time data will allow agency staff to respond more quickly to incidents and identify delays and communicate them to drivers so they can take alternative routes if necessary.

On London’s M25 orbital motorway and its feeder routes a different technology has been successfully trialled to measure journey times which uses anonymous location data from mobile devices, to provide accurate data which will inform the planning of future measures to reduce congestion.

"At the moment control rooms collect information from cameras and a vast number of sensors built into the road surface” says Simon Sheldon-Wilson, Highways Agency traffic management director. “But if an incident happens out of camera shot or if the traffic does not queue back to one of the sensor locations, we don't have a full picture of the problem and there can be delays responding. This new approach would allow us to work with GPS data which will give us the most accurate and comprehensive data set to manage traffic flow and clear up incidents as quickly as possible” he said, adding that the information used for the M25 scheme is historic, not immediate, but will help to develop improvements targeted to reduce congestion and improve reliability.

The scheme to improve the quality of information provided to drivers uses data that comes mostly from vehicle tracking devices installed by fleet operators, and a proportion from mobile sat-nav type devices, including smartphone traffic applications where the user has opted in to making their anonymous location data available.

The M25 scheme uses data that is routinely collected by mobile network operators to monitor signal strengths and network coverage.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • AWS finds new solutions
    December 8, 2021
    Forward-thinking public agencies are turning to a new breed of solutions provider to address current traveller needs. They work with system integrators, independent software vendors, and consultants to innovate using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to improve traffic safety, construction project management, analytics and reporting, and secure identification. Phil Silver, a state and local government transportation leader at AWS, provides examples of how builders on AWS are transforming transport using technology
  • Priority boosts ridership and cuts congestion
    May 4, 2016
    Transit priority is proving a win-win in Europe and Australia. David Crawford reports. Technology that integrates with the Australian-originated Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) is driving bus signal priority and performance analysis initiatives on both sides of the world; in its homeland, with a major deployment in 2015, and in the capital of the Republic of Ireland.
  • Moscow models traffic conditions in real-time
    February 26, 2015
    Moscow, which has to contend with heavy congestion on its arterial and ring roads during rush hour, relies heavily on its newly-implemented intelligent transportation system (ITS). At the heart of the system is PTV Group’s model-based PTV Optima, which delivers accurate traffic information in real-time and enables dynamic forecasting for a timescale of 60 minutes. PTV Optima collects, compares, validates and combines data from multiple sources to produce a coherent and detailed traffic picture. Using a comb
  • Use of ITS technology grows more prevalent in safety applications
    January 30, 2012
    Transportation agencies and governments are using ITS technology to protect critical infrastructure from terrorist attack and other threats to economic security and public safety. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. It is no secret that we live in a potentially dangerous world. Terrorism as seen on 9/11 in the United States, subsequent attacks in London, Moscow and Madrid and other acts of violence across the developing world have made vigilance the watchword for ensuring security. Key infrastructure is now bei