As part of a government plan to combat congestion, the
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latest technologies will be combined to feed real-time information to drivers. In theory the £100m privately run scheme will enable hauliers to save time by avoiding problem routes. So far, so good. But will it actually work? Patrick Hook reports.
Traffic volumes are increasing at a rate which threatens gridlock not very far into the new century— the Department of Transport calculates that between 1996 and 2o3r UK traffic will increase by 31%. To combat this a major new project will provide road users, including hard pressed HGV drivers, with up-to-the-second information about traffic conditions on all 6,500 miles of the English trunk-road network using a range of advanced communication technologies.
The Highways Agency claims that the scheme, known as the TCC (Traffic Control Centre) project, will be the biggest of its kind in the world. It is due to be operational within two-and-a-half years—but it will be in the hands of a private company. For the first time, traffic management will be taken out of the hands of the police, although the two groups are expected to liaise closely.
A single control room will act as the nerve centre for all data relating to traffic conditions. Information will be collected by buried movement detection loops in the road, CCTV cameras and police patrols. As it comes in, it will be analysed by a central computer processor and sent back out to drivers as real-time information.
"The computer technology necessary to make all this happen is still in the development stage," says Steve Nicholson, the TCC Project Manager with the Highways Agency. "Over the course of the next few years we expect software to be able to tell us a great deal about road
conditions, including the impact that incidents in one part of the network will have on other parts. This will enable the TCC to manage the available road space much more efficiently."
There is little doubt that much is expected of the new project in terrns of a significant improvement in the driving conditions of HGV and other drivers.
Increased volumes of traffic mean that unless steps are taken now, the congestion levels will get worse. "The system is not prescriptive," says Nicholson. "It will not compel drivers to do anything that they do not want to, but we only need to influence a few people to make a real difference to driving conditions."
Influencing people will be the job of a greatly expanded, national grid of VMS (variable message signs) linked directly to the TCC computer and placed at strategic positions on the highway so as to offer drivers alternative routes. In addition to these, there will be realtime information on all incidents available from commercial radio broadcasts, the Internet and the Highways Agency's Information Line (HAIL).
Traffic bulletins
Drivers who want to know the latest position will be able to rely on radios equipped with RDS-TMC (Radio Data System—Traffic management Channel). Normal programmes will automatically be interrupted with local traffic bulletins. At home or in the office, drivers might want to log on to the Highways Agency web site (www.higways.gov.uk) or call HAIL (08457 504030). They will be taken through a menu of choices to find the best route to follow.
"Computer technology will enable the information to be updated every few seconds and will automatically generate a series of prewritten messages for the VMS," says Nicholson. "It means that drivers 50 or Go miles from the scene of an incident will start to be offered other routes. On top of this, predictive software will make sense of the data coming into the TCC and will predict congestion points several hours ahead of the event."
Three consortia are bidding for the contract, which is worth an estimated Itoom over ro years; the Highways Agency is expected to announce a 'preferred bidder' later this summer, But despite all the hype that will undoubtedly accompany the launch of the project, a number of difficulties remain to be solved. Among these is the question of the commercial viability of the scheme; the relationship of the TCC to the police: and the provision of safety critical information by a commercially driven organisation.
The government has made it clear that while it is keen for the project to go ahead, there will be no public money involved and it therefore goes ahead as a Pr' (private finance initiative) project on which the winning consortium will expect to make a profit. This means that the commercial risk is taken by the private sector and the government hands over the existing equipment (CCTV systems, fibre optic cable network, movement detection sensors, VMS signs, etc), for the period of the contract.
The government is not announcing details of its io-year transport strategy until later this summer so it is not yet known whether TCC will be included.
Since all safety critical information has, under the terms of the service agreement, to be supplied to the public free, any income has to be derived from other sources. It is expected that this will include the sort of information that organisations like the AA, the RAC and others will be able to package and sell on to members and fleet users.
One example could be navigation and route guidance to a destination that the AA/RAC might wish to package with details of available hotel accommodation. The problem is that a Highways Agency-sponsored survey conducted about two years ago cast serious doubts over the profitability of the whole scheme. If the company fails to make money, it is difficult to see the project going ahead under the current financial arrangements.
Another question mark hangs over the rela
tionship of the TCC with the police. Several commentators have questioned the wisdom of introducing a layer of bureaucracy between drivers and the emergency services in time of urgent need.
In fact each of the 32 police control rooms will have a computer interface with the TCC which will, in many cases, result in a si icant improvement in the level of technology fielded by the police.
The service agreement makes it clear that although the police will no longer enjoy primacy of control they will receive details of emergency calls at least as quickly as at present. The primary purpose of the introduction of the TCC is to provide a strategic overview in an attempt to make optimum use of the roads network.
One of the most serious drawbacks of the present system of traffic control is that, apart from comparatively small areas in the English Midlands, all the police control rooms deal exclusively with their own areas. They do not know the implications of any action they take on traffic further up the road. There is little or no routine exchange of information between the control rooms to indicate the state of the roads and the locally controlled VMS cannot warn of incidents until it is too late.
The strategic overview presented by the TCC project implies that, for the first time, a nationwide view will be taken and the unacceptable delays that are a daily feature of HGV drivers' lives could soon be a thing of the past,