Traffic monitoring on all-purpose roads for strategic network management

Traffic information is derived from real time data collected from the road by a network of traffic monitoring devices. Establishing this network requires a substantial investment both in vehicle detector technology and communications. The Highways Agency has commissioned WSP to investigate techniques and technologies that will minimise the cost of this investment whilst still retaining the accuracy and timeliness of data required by the road user. This paper considers three methods of reducing the cost of network monitoring: 1) the use of exception reporting; 2) selection of economic transmission carriers from the roadside to data collection nodes; and 3) The application of video image processing and low bandwidth traffic data. We summarise the work of four reports which have been prepared for the Highways Agency and utilise data from several months of trials on the M1 and M40.