ITS – Innovative Solutions For Smart Traffic Management

One of the biggest challenges that most transit agencies have to manage is traffic and congestion in journeys. While there may be several solutions for this, the most effective ones are offered by Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) that use smart insights to enhance your operations.

We all remember “The Fifth Element” and a handful of exemplary innovations it depicted. Gone are the days when we have to wonder about witnessing three-dimensional traffic in fascinating megacities- ITS certainly makes it possible. 

Let’s dive deep into the article and look at some of these solutions when it comes to smart traffic management with ITS.

What Is The Intelligent Transport System? 

ITS, or Intelligent Transport System, offers smart means of transportation. It keeps track of traffic conditions like weather, accidents, and demand with the help of sensors. This information helps in actively managing the traffic and eventually reducing accidents and congestion. 

Next, we will be discussing some measures that can help to increase capacity with ITS:  

• Hard Shoulder Running

HSR or hard shoulder running refers to the dynamic use of hard shoulders in the form of a driving lane. The goal is to boost road capacity when there’s a high traffic demand.

• Variable Message Signs

VMS or Variable Message Signs are electronic roadside signs that help communicate information to travelers. Drivers get to know about incidents, detours, travel times, and special events.

• EVP

Emergency Vehicle Preemption or Priority interferes with the usual traffic light timing. It gives a green light to the approaching vehicles to pass any intersection quickly and safely. 

Innovative Solutions For Smart Traffic Management

In the era of accelerating urbanization, effective traffic management has become the need of the hour. In the next section of the article, we are going to discover how smart traffic management is possible with a set of innovative solutions: 

Adjust Your Journeys To Navigate Traffic

The first smart solution to managing traffic in your transit agency is by adjusting your routes to better navigate congestion.

Real-time vehicle monitoring can be implemented in your fleet to provide on-board tracking devices for your vehicles so you can receive positional information for each vehicle at all times.

When traffic causes things like delays on your vehicles’ routes, ITS can suggest a more suitable route to avoid as much congestion as possible for an efficient journey.

This way, your vehicles can avoid as much traffic as possible, leading to timely journeys and increased cost-efficiency – among many other benefits.

Monitor Your Fleet Closely

Another solution for smart traffic management is to more closely monitor your fleet. This means not only knowing what vehicles are in operation but also identifying where schedules can be improved.

If there are severe delays in certain routes, for example, ITS could suggest an additional vehicle to be added to the active fleet or a certain adjustment to the schedule.

This can help ensure the right number of vehicles and the correct routes are in place to match the level of traffic at certain times throughout the day.

Your command center can also quickly identify any issues or incidents with ITS. The systems can predict things like faulty equipment and make fast suggestions for issues like closures and accidents on the road.

This gives you more in-moment control over your fleet during heavy traffic, so you can smartly manage issues.

Keep Passengers Informed

When congestion becomes an obstacle, one of the most important things is to keep your riders well-informed of how your fleet is operating.

It can be frustrating if passengers are waiting long periods for a vehicle to arrive without any accurate information on when they can expect it.

With real-time passenger information, your riders can receive real-time updates on the expected arrival times of your vehicles. As traffic worsens or lightens, and these times change, the displays will immediately reflect this in real-time.

Riders are, therefore, kept fully in the loop on the predicted length of their entire journey, regardless of how busy traffic is.

AI For Intelligent Traffic Congestion Forecasting System

Wikipedia defines artificial neural networks as neural networks that are no less than computing systems. Most of them draw inspiration from biological neural networks. 

Moreover, this form of AI is helpful in determining the traffic conditions on the road, both short and long-term. Most of them depend on the program and can be useful for guiding drivers to clear up congestion.

Various schools across Germany have been utilizing this to ensure the security of their students on the road. A student might simply press the traffic button and indicate that they are waiting to cross the road. 

Further, the intelligent sensor detects how many people want to cross and then adjusts the red light duration. As a result, there is no risks of accidents. 

Optimize Capacity To Meet Demand 

Another challenge for transit agencies during times of heavy traffic is being able to effectively meet rider demand.

Using ITS, you can make the right alterations to your network to ensure you optimize capacity in each of your vehicles.

You can make sure each vehicle arrives at its stop at the right time compared to other arrivals, allowing each vehicle to be spread out to collect the largest possible number of riders with each vehicle.

Also, you can receive insights into rider demand that help you choose the right schedules and routes for your vehicles so you can adapt to the changing rider demand during congested hours of the day.

The Bottom Line

Whether you’re looking to increase the efficiency of your journeys, monitor your vehicles better, inform your passengers, or effectively mitigate issues, ITS can provide the best solutions for smart traffic management. What specific traffic challenges could ITS help provide solutions for in your transit agency?

With this, I bring this article to an end. There’s a constant innovation in the field of traffic management and make the most of it by integrating ITS. If this article offered you the necessary insight, make sure to comment below and let me know. Until then, happy reading. 

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