HOW DO SMART TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS WORK? | by Karnika Kaur | Jul, 2021 | Medium
Smart traffic management is a system put in place in manydeveloped countries and it is being tried to be incorporated in developingcountries like India to detect areas with congested or heavy traffic so thatthe authorities responsible like the traffic police can try to reduce theovercrowding in those areas. They are being developed with the main aim ofreducing pollution and preventing accidents on the roads. They are being highlyused for highwaytraffic management because it can do wonders for road safety over there.
There are a few components to thissystem: Video control/Video monitoring systems, Traffic control systems/Trafficcontrol unit, Supervisory Computer Control systems/Control Unit and Peripheraldevices. These work in collaboration with Controlling and Monitoring Algorithmsin the system which executes the a) Traffic control and congestion detectionand b) Accident management.
The video control system encapsulatesinstalled cameras and visual sensors on the roads to detect when there is heavycongestion on a road. A signal of some sort is then sent by the Traffic controlsystem. The Traffic control unit creates a connection between the transmitter(mostly the video control system) and a receiver ( a traffic control policeofficer or supervisor of the area) who can regulate the huge number of vehiclesin and essentially reduce it.
The peripherals are the name givento the physical sensors like cameras or heat sensors which are calledtransmitters in a smart traffic management system. These sensors can detectsignals and process them in forms the Control unit can decode to understand.
The Control unit generateseffective and smooth communication between the sensors and the peripherals andthe traffic control system.
Advanced technology and analyticsis used to collaborate the functions of the separate components of the smarttraffic management in spaces like highwaytraffic management.
A semantic flow of the signalswill work in the following way for instance:
If there is a heavy amount oftraffic in an area a signal is sent by the traffic control unit to a main dataserver. The data server gives constant information to the control unit and whenthe data indicates congestion, the control unit causes the sending of a messageto the appropriate agent at the particular area using a mapping technology aswell.
BENEFITS
1. The pollution can be significantly reducedbecause the extreme and unnecessary congestion of vehicles can be avoided andreduced using smart traffic management systems.
2. Road accidents, which are a major cause ofdeaths all around the world, are reduced because traffic jams can be reduced.
3. The commuters can save a lot of time byavoiding routes with congestion using the special traffic light signals.
4. It is a great help to the traffic policepersonnel because they can actually detect traffic jams in advance.
In some places trafficsignal light manufacturers in India have madetraffic signal lights which are capable of changing the traffic lights andtheir colour and intensity when there is a traffic jam.
