Intelligent Transportation

Systems
Most slides borrowed from
Dr. V. Lelitha Devis ITS course

A century back
If there are faults with cars, the editors
concluded, only time is wanted to make them
disappear.... There is no mechanism more
inoffensive, no means of transport more sure and
safe. - Scientific American Article in 1890s
Source: Transportation's perennial problems.
Scientific American; Oct 97, Vol. 277 Issue 4, p54

Learning from the past

Technology change is necessitated by current
problems
New York City in 1900 was buried under roughly four
million pounds of manure every day. Horses had to be
stabled away from their carriages "because their urine
fumes were strong enough to blister paint. But the worst
pollution problem was the air loaded with bacteriacarrying dust, through which respiratory diseases were
transmitted. When autos displaced horses in the 1920s,
tuberculosis rates plummeted.

same problems today

Congestion
NYC roads were congested a century back with slowmoving horse carriages; now with slow-moving cars!
Safety and security
Autos were considered safer mode than horse
carriages; not any more
Environmental impact
From manure pollution to gaseous emissions

Major Issues in the Transportation

Area

Congestion
Accidents
Aging infrastructure
Increasing number of vehicles

Potential Solutions
Infrastructure expansion/renewal
politics
limited resources (money, land,...)

New techniques
more intelligent use of available resources
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)

What is ITS?

Application of advanced technologies to the transportation sector to

improve the efficiency or safety of a surface transportation system.
ITS applies well-established technologies of communications,
control, electronics and computer hardware and software to the
surface transportation system.

ITS provides the ability to gather, organize, analyze, use, and

share information about transportation systems.

Benefits:
Resolution of traffic problems, including traffic congestion, air
pollution, and traffic accidents.
Improved services for users
Increased efficiency of the transportation system for the
operators.

AREAS
ATMS Advanced Traffic Management Systems
ATIS Advanced Traffic Information systems
AVCS Advanced Vehicle Control Systems
CVO Commercial Vehicle Operations
APTS Advanced Public Transportation Systems
ARTS Advanced Rural Transportation Systems

Applications
Incident detection and management

Route guidance

Demand management

Parking management

Electronic toll collection

Work zone management

Advanced traveler Information

Advanced traveler Information

Vehicle Control

GPS Navigation system

Cruise control
Collision alert warning
Collision avoidance control
Automated highway systems

Automated highway system

 Future highways may

incorporate automated
vehicle lanes accessible
from validation/transition
lanes, which would check
each vehicle's
computerized driving
system.

Both automated highway

lanes and intelligent
vehicles will require special
sensors, controllers, and
communications devices to
coordinate traffic flow.

Commercial vehicle Operation

Automatic vehicle locator (GPS)
Two way communications
Weigh-in-motion

Public Transportation
Electronic payment
Prediction of arrivals
Signal preemption

Problem:

Major incident on
Freeway

Time is of the essence .

Solution:

Detection
Equipment

Solution:

Detection
Equipment

Traffic
Management
Center

Dispatch

Changeable
Message Signs

Internet

In-vehicle

Basic requirements of ITS

Real time data collection techniques
Communication facilities (Data transfer)
Traffic Management Center (Data analysis)
Traveler information facilities

Data Collection Techniques

Data Collection Techniques

(Contd.)
Popular Data collection techniques used in
ITS applications:

Detectors
Probe Vehicles (Automatic Vehicle Identifiers
(AVI), and Automatic Vehicle Locators (AVL),
GPS, etc.)
Video

Detectors

(Source: http://transops.tamu.edu/content/sensors.cfm)

AVI

(Source: http://www.houstontranstar.org/about_transtar/docs/2003_fact_sheet_2.pdf)

AVI

GPS

Camera

Data Collection Techniques :

Advantages
Detector - No need for public participation,
collect data from the whole population.
Probe Vehicles Travel time data also can be
obtained directly.
Video The traffic scenario can be seen later
for different purposes.

Data Collection Techniques :

Limitations
Detectors quality of data deteriorate with time
Probe Vehicles need public participation,
sample size is small
Video privacy issues, data extraction from
video

Communication
Communication
GPRS (General Packet
Radio Service)
ADSL (Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line )
Optical Fibers

Data analysis
Traffic management centers Algorithms,
models and techniques

Equipments

Data Archiving

Storage Server
Storage Media
Portable Systems

Hardware

Computers
Traffic controllers
Plasma TV
CC TV

Equipments
Software for
Video detection and tracking
Network and Traffic
Simulation
Optimization
Traffic control
Vehicle tracking and GIS
Signature matching and
License plate matching

Issues Specific to Indian Traffic

Conditions
We do not have a technology for real time
data collection which suits our
requirements of:
Heterogeneous/mixed traffic varying from
bullock carts to trucks
No lane discipline vehicles occupy the entire
road space

Mixed Traffic

Lane Discipline

Data Collection Techniques :

Limitations under Indian traffic
conditions
Detectors - lane based
Probe Vehicles sample size less, expensive

Video available data extraction software are for

homogeneous lane disciplined traffic

Need of the Hour

Need to develop:
A cost effective detection technology that will
collect data from the entire road space rather than
lane by lane.
or
A real time video extraction software which can
identify more classes of vehicles and which can
scan the entire road space in each frame