HOW DO SMART TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS WORK?

Smart traffic management is a system put in place in many developed countries and it is being tried to be incorporated in developing countries like India to detect areas with congested or heavy traffic so that the authorities responsible like the traffic police can try to reduce the overcrowding in those areas. They are being developed with the main aim of reducing pollution and preventing accidents on the roads. They are being highly used for highway traffic management because it can do wonders for road safety over there.

There are a few components to this system: Video control/Video monitoring systems, Traffic control systems/Traffic control unit, Supervisory Computer Control systems/Control Unit and Peripheral devices. These work in collaboration with Controlling and Monitoring Algorithms in the system which executes the a) Traffic control and congestion detection and b) Accident management.

The video control system encapsulates installed cameras and visual sensors on the roads to detect when there is heavy congestion on a road. A signal of some sort is then sent by the Traffic control system. The Traffic control unit creates a connection between the transmitter (mostly the video control system) and a receiver ( a traffic control police officer or supervisor of the area) who can regulate the huge number of vehicles in and essentially reduce it.

The peripherals are the name given to the physical sensors like cameras or heat sensors which are called transmitters in a smart traffic management system. These sensors can detect signals and process them in forms the Control unit can decode to understand.

The Control unit generates effective and smooth communication between the sensors and the peripherals and the traffic control system.

Advanced technology and analytics is used to collaborate the functions of the separate components of the smart traffic management in spaces like highway traffic management.

A semantic flow of the signals will work in the following way for instance:

If there is a heavy amount of traffic in an area a signal is sent by the traffic control unit to a main data server. The data server gives constant information to the control unit and when the data indicates congestion, the control unit causes the sending of a message to the appropriate agent at the particular area using a mapping technology as well.

BENEFITS

1. The pollution can be significantly reduced because the extreme and unnecessary congestion of vehicles can be avoided and reduced using smart traffic management systems.
2. Road accidents, which are a major cause of deaths all around the world, are reduced because traffic jams can be reduced.
3. The commuters can save a lot of time by avoiding routes with congestion using the special traffic light signals.
4. It is a great help to the traffic police personnel because they can actually detect traffic jams in advance.

In some places traffic signal light manufacturers in India have made traffic signal lights which are capable of changing the traffic lights and their colour and intensity when there is a traffic jam.