TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

Managing Indian Highways

Advanced Traffic Management

Systems the need of the hour
Serious implementation of ATMS and strict action against traffic violators are extremely important for the
management of traffic on Indian Highways

s the Indian Economy opened

its doors to the world in 1991,
the multinational giants from
all sectors rushed to grab the opportunities available in the lucrative Indian market. As these companies set
up their offices and plants in India,
it became necessary to provide them
with world class infrastructure
roads being the most important part
of it. The Union and State Govern-

40

ments are currently investing heavily on road infrastructure with the

schemes like Golden Quadrilateral,
NHDP (National Highway Development Project) and Gram Sadak Yojana. With a total length of over 3.314
million kilometers of roadways, India
has the third largest road network
in the world handling almost 80%
of passenger traffic and about 65%
of freight movement in the country.

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Since a well established road network is crucial for the economic and
industrial development of a country,
the government of India is taking
steps to modernise the roads.
Even if the length and width of
Indian roads is ever increasing, traffic congestion has become a major
hurdle to the free flow of the traffic
both on national highways and the

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

As technology plays a
major role in ATMS, it has
to be reliable and should
leave no margin for error.
For that, more and more
technology providers
should come forward with
newer and cost effective
technologies.

state highways. The developed nations

began feeling the heat of this problem in
the twentieth century itself. The drivers in
the 68 largest urban areas in the U.S. experienced an increase in traffic delays due
to congestion from 11 hours per year in
1982 to 36 hours in 1999. The estimated
cost of traffic congestion in these 68 areas
totalled $78 billion, representing a cost
of 4.5 million extra hours of travel and
6.8 billion gallons (25.7 billion liters) of
wasted fuel (Schrank and Lomax, 2002).
This wasted fuel is bound to have negative
impact on the environment.
We are facing the same problem in India
now. Of course, the causes of traffic congestion are multiple increasing number
of on-road vehicles, bad road conditions,
erratic weather conditions, accidents and
disrespect for the traffic rules being a few
of them. Each of these causes has to be
dealt with separately. But the problem of
traffic congestion can be addressed by using the advanced technology to a great extent. The developed countries are dealing
with traffic congestion with Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS). Awareness of ATMS is spreading in India too of
late, where along with traffic congestion,
on-road safety too is a big concern. That is
why ATMS needs more attention from the
government, the concessionaires, developers and the contractors.

Processes of ATMS
Advanced/Highway Traffic Management
System (ATMS or HTMS) involves the following main processes:
An inflow of information (e.g. traffic
hold-up, accidents, etc.) regarding the
road status to the road management
(operations) company and in turn, to
the VMS (Variable Message Signs).

Subsequent decision-making (e.g.

sending a patrol vehicle to regulate
traffic or an ambulance to the accident
site, etc.) by the road management
(operations) company based on the
above information. These decisions are
normally guided by their standard procedures and policies.
Information (e.g. Automatic Traffic
Counting and Classification System,
Weather Monitoring System, etc.).
Intelligent Transportation Systems offer

innovative highway traffic management

solutions. By utilising intelligent technology, highway safety can be increased and
traffic operations, improved.
The following are the main sub systems
of the ATMS:
Variable Message Signs (VMS): VMS
give travellers information about special events. Such signs warn of traffic
congestion, accidents, incidents, roadwork zones or speed limits on a specific highway segment. They may also

www.trafficinfratech.com August - September 11 TrafficInfraTech

41

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
Goals of ATMS

The goals of ATMS are:

Detect, Verify And Respond

Transguide Operations
Center (TOC)

Improving the travelling safety

Improving the travelling mobility

or

15 Se
con
ds
or
L

ss
Le

Access
Road

Loop
Detectors

Traffic Slows

Incident
Occurs

Traffic survillance camera

ask vehicles to take alternative routes,

limit travel speed, warn of duration and
location of the incidents or just inform
of the traffic conditions. VMS are available as fixed VMS as well as portable
trailer mounted ones.
Automatic Traffic Counter and Classification System (ATCC): ATCC keeps a
count of vehicles for a specific highway
segment. Along with this, the vehicles
can be classified according to their
classes. Passive Infrared or Doppler radar technology is used for ATCC.
Weather Monitoring System (Meteorological Station): It is used for recording environmental parameters such as
wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, visibility and
road surface temperature.
Emergency Call Box (ECB) System:
In case of any emergency such as accidents, ECB serves the need to communicate with the police or ambulance
service.
CCTV
(Closed-Circuit
Television)
Monitoring System: CCTV is used for
continuous video monitoring at specific
highway segments to convey the event
information such as traffic conditions
and accidents to the control room.

Typical Freeway Variable Message

Sign & Lane Control
Signals (LCS)

Conserving the energy while protecting

the environment.

Traffic Warned to
Route
Around Incident

function is based on a centrally managed system in which operators located in the Control Room are able
to use systems (including computers
and communication devices). For example, if a visibility sensor detects
poor visibility due to fog, this information is passed on to the control
room and the control room, in turn,
passes it on to a VMS.

ATMS will improve the

traffic situation on the
highways by improving
travelling safety, improving
the travelling mobility,
improving the system
efficiency, increasing
the productivity of the
transportation providers
and conserving the energy
while protecting the
environment.

The Supervisory System at the

Control Room: ATMS operation and

42

Increasing the productivity of the transportation providers

2
1

Improving the system efficiency

s
es

2M
in
.

Typical Ramp
Variable Message
Sign (WMS)

TrafficInfraTech August - September 11 www.trafficinfratech.com

As technology plays a major role in

ATMS, it has to be reliable and should
leave no margin for error. For that, more
and more technology providers should
come forward with newer and cost effective technologies. All the respective ministries (of union and state governments)
should be pro-active and should lay down
stringent specifications for all the sub systems of ATMS. While doing that, the Indian climatic conditions, road conditions,
etc. should be considered. Just copying
the specifications from developed countries will not serve the purpose. Opinions
of the developers, who actually work on
the highways and face many problems,
must be considered for the purpose. Research and Development (R & D) should
be given utmost importance. Intelligent
Transportation Society of America estimates that more than $209 billion will
be spent on ITS programmes by the end
of 2011. We also need this kind of seriousness in implementing the ATMS.
Over and above this, just implementing
the ATMS will not solve the problem
the enforcement authorities should also
swing into action and the traffic rule violators should meet with strict action.

Mahesh Dharmadhikari
Manager
Sales West
Masstrans Systems (P) Ltd