Revision as of 10:33, 16 March 2012

Traffic management

A general definition of traffic management is the direction, control, and supervision of all functions incident to the procurement and use of freight and passenger transportation services^[1]. Traffic management measures include for example lane closure or opening (e.g. HOV lanes, peak lanes), intersection control, ramp metering, dynamic speed limits, etc. In relation to security issues, you can think of rerouting, route closure, traffic information provision, reverse laning, etc. Traffic management is normally performed by traffic management centres.

Traffic monitoring

In order to perform effective traffic management, it is necessary to determine if there are disruptions or incidents on the network. This is done with some form of traffic monitoring. Examples of traffic monitoring are loop detectors to count and measure speed of vehicles, radar, bluetooth, counting cameras, license plate recognition or cameras with a normal (video) image to be judged by people in the traffic management center.

Incident management

Use traffic management in order to safely and efficiently clear traffic incidents to minimize traffic delays and help injured people as soon as possible. Emergency services should reach the incident location and remove the blockage on the road as soon as possible.

Evacuation management

Evacuation management is a special form of traffic management and incident management for the situation that large groups of people need to be evacuated outside a certain area. Depending on the disaster type, there is more or less time available. General goal is to get all people out in as little time as possible. General traffic management measures, such as reverse laning, routing, departure time control can be applied for this. The total evacuation time is dependent of the capacity of the exit roads out of the area and the number of people/vehicles that need to get out. Weak points that limit the outgoing capacity are for example bridges.

Apart from the traffic process of personal vehicles, also public transport or dedicated buses can be used to evacuate people that e.g. don't have a vehicle available.

Special issues in case of evacuations are the evacuation of people from large buildings, vulnerable people such as people in the hospital, and access to critical infrastructures such as the road infrastructure, communication infrastructures and electricity. In case there is no electricity, most traffic management measures do not work anymore.

Dynamic traffic management

Insert text

Lane signaling

Insert text

Ramp metering

Insert text

Dynamic Route Information Panel (DRIPs)

Insert text

Dynamic road marking

Insert text

Road works management

Using traffic management in order to minimize traffic delays due to road works. Many principles from road works management can also be applied when roads are blocks due to a security issue.