Review of urban traffic management and the impacts of new vehicle technologies

Traffic congestion is a growing problem in most urban areas across the world. In recent years, the problem has often been tackled by management of existing capacity rather than the traditional concept of more road building. This requires efficient traffic management tools and has led to widespread implementation of advanced traffic control systems integrated within a wider urban traffic management (UTM) environment. UTM systems collect data from various sources, process and manage the data and use this information to implement various measures to manage traffic. While infrastructure-based UTM systems continue to develop, there is now also a rapid market-driven development of vehicle technologies and in-vehicle driver support systems. Driver information and satellite navigation (sat-nav) systems are two examples already in widespread use, whereas other applications under research and development include intelligent speed adaptation (ISA), adaptive cruise control (ACC) and various other safety-related applications. This study will firstly present state-of-the-art reviews of UTM and in-vehicle systems. It will then discuss the potential impacts of new in-vehicle systems on UTM and opportunities for beneficial cooperation between the two. The research described in the study has been undertaken within a collaborative project FUTURES, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).