Personal Mobility

In Japan, the police bear the responsibility of traffic management, and tackle many problems caused by road traffic, such as traffic accident, traffic congestion and environmental pollution,  using  traffic  management  technique  such  as  traffic  regulation  and  traffic  control.  For  this  traffic  management, NPA  (the  National  Police  Agency) planned UTMS21  (Universal  Traffic  Management  System  21)  and  is  installing  it  nationwide  as  one  of  ITS  (the  Intelligent  Transport System) in our country.  The  UTMS21  consists  of  10  subsystems,  centering  around  ITCS  (Integrated  Transportation System). The PICS (Pedestrian Information and Communication Systems) introduced in this paper is also one of the subsystems of UTMS21.

PICS is intended to provide information through  voice and image, in addition to the  conventional function of Audible Traffic Signals, Weak-actuated  Traffic Signals and Pedestrian-actuated  Traffic  Signals.  By these functions, PICS will provide the pedestrians with safe, convenient and comfortable mobility and help people expand the area of travel.

The National Police Agency, Japan - Traffic Regulation Section, Traffic Bureau

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

Motorists in Moorhead, Minnesota frequently experience delays of up to five minutes due to train operations in the downtown area. The Moorhead Train Detection and Traffic Control System will reduce motorist delay and improve emergency vehicle response in the area. The project utilizes video-based detection of train movements to monitor each train’s presence, speed, length and direction. Data from the detectors is transmitted to the system’s central processor, where algorithms calculate the predicted blockage time at several crossings within the downtown area. This information is used in three different applications. First, alternative traffic signal timing plans are deployed when trains of a minimum length are detected. Second, emergency dispatch personnel are notified of crossing status, allowing for more effective emergency vehicle dispatching and response. Third, a future phase of this project will alert motorists to potential delays with strategically placed variable message signs.

Minnesota Department of Transportation

SRF Consulting Group, Inc.

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) are currently being deployed in metropolitan areas for both highway and transit systems. Now, traveler information systems are being examined for their applicability to all phases of the longer distance trip between metropolitan areas. Work now underway at the I-95 Corridor Coalition is examining the needs of the traveler for longer distance trips by modes other than the private automobile.1 Work currently underway at the Transit Cooperative Research Program is examining a wide variety of strategies useful to the designer of public transportation services to airports, including the need to get information to the user about alternatives to the automobile trip.2 Based on the work at these two organizations, this paper reviews the application of elements of ATIS programs to aid the traveler in the provision of a multisegment public mode trip (i.e. a trip requiring several modes) which provides the user with an alternative to the automobile trip. The examples illustrate the technology available to improve the utilization of public modes to major airports.

Matthew A. Coogan - Consultant in Transportation

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

Tehran- the capital of Iran- is the largest city of the country with more than 8 million people residents, 600 square kilometers wide, it serves more than 4 million vehicles and 4 million motorcycles as well, over a large scattered road network consisting of 4 active metro ways and 5 active bus rapid transit lanes. Nevertheless, deficiency of transportation systems in Tehran has been led to achieve the first place in the world in air and noise pollution. At 1980, Tehran municipality lined a border around the city center, and defined a traffic congested area through which any entry for the vehicles since then needs permission. Although such permission is only granted to a very small group of people like physicians, there was still a great trespassing rate due to the insufficient capability of control. Till the past year, all the entry roads to the restricted zone were controlled by police officers. There are as much as 5 million vehicles passing the borders monthly of which 20 percent or 1.1 million is illegal. Thus, efficient controlling is a major need, and if systemized, it can deliver vital information of traffic data. Since the past year, Tehran traffic Control Company, implemented an automated control of the borders, using 103 high res. Cameras, which contributed to detect more than 80 percent of illegal entries, and has become a very useful tool to collect traffic data for further analysis. This paper discusses this success story.

Keywords: Tehran traffic problems, congestion charging, congestion pricing

2011 World Congress, Orlando, Tehran Traffic Control Company

With the urgent demand for real-time traffic information in Intelligent Transportation System,
the high-density installation of detectors has been adopted, while the amount of investment
has been sharply increased. So optimum detector location density is necessary. In this paper,
the optimum method based on travel time estimation has been expounded. The major
conclusions could be summarized as follows: considering the appropriate estimation error for
travel time and reasonable investment, the space between detectors has a suitable bound and
the high-density installation of detectors is not always good for ITS system. The method for
selecting suitable bound discussed in the paper could be introduced to confirm detector
density and detector amount in practical applications, then according to this bound the
optimum detector location density can be achieved.

Tongji University

Presented at the 12th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 6-10, 2005, San Francisco, California