Traffic Management Systems

What It Is, How It Works

In North America, an ITS is primarily concerned with automotive transport. Regardless of how individuals feel about America's dependence on automobiles, it is critical that these automotive transportation systems operate in as optimal a fashion as possible.

The operators of ITS in North America attempt to alter traffic flow by providing information to users in a way that will make automotive travel quicker and more efficient. There are six metrics that all intelligent transportation systems use: increasing transportation-system efficiency, enhancing commuter mobility, improving safety for commuters and bystanders, reducing automotive fuel consumption and the environmental cost of said consumption, increasing economic productivity, and creating an environment conducive to ITS markets.

Regardless of how independent people feel in their automobiles, it is possible for a driver to be manipulated. This manipulation is not conducted out of any desire to micromanage the daily routine of drivers. Instead, these efforts are conducted to optimize traffic flow in an area that may be larger than a major city.

When driving on roads controlled by a TMS, this outside manipulation likely comes from a central point that is governed on a top-down management model. The directors of this type of model seek to integrate technology to improve vehicle flow and commuter safety.

While each TMS is different, they all follow the same basic set of rules. All traffic management centers use real-time traffic data from some type of sensor to a central transportation management center (TMC). The sensors that could be used include real-time traffic monitoring sensors, incident monitoring sensors, traffic cameras, ramp meter monitors, and traffic signal monitors, and each of these types of sensors includes many models and variations.

Once the information from the sensors arrives at the TMC, it is processed and a number of actions may be taken by utilizing a variety of output devices. Dynamic message signs (DMS) are stationary traffic control devices that can provide one or more messages. They are capable of giving [Page 1381]either real-time advice, such as accident information, or basic driving reminders, such as “Don'st text and drive.”

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