ITS Dynamic Traffic Management

Imagine how much more efficient any form of transport could be if you could receive and use real-time information about what’s travelling where. That data could prevent bottlenecks, co-ordinate different types of travel and prevent imminent accidents. This vision is now a reality, with our pioneering work on dynamic traffic management.

We’ve introduced dynamic traffic management for clients in road, rail, air and sea transport. In rail, for example, we’ve not only helped to improve traffic flow but also provided the  billing systems so that train operators only pay for what they use.

Dynamic traffic management is going to bring fundamental benefits to all types of transport. It’s currently based on an interim technology – camera IT – but we’ll soon be able to deploy far more sophisticated methods, such as vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications.

Every kind of vehicle – from trains and ships to cargo containers – will be able to transmit identification, positioning and other useful data to processing centres. This will give traffic managers comprehensive, instantaneous views of all the movements in their networks. From that, they can order interventions to optimise traffic flows, increase efficiencies and reduce fuel use.

Take port operators. Total traffic management will enable them to monitor multi-modal movements around the port. Ship arrivals can be synchronised with freight transport to make cargo transfers seamless.

In rail, managers will get granular control over train movements, signalling and platform capacity, allowing them to put more trains on the tracks and tell passengers where empty seats can be found.