Intelligent Infrastructure Management

probe

The traffic light created truck jam at Dublin port this morning is yet another manifestation of a major weakness in SCATS, the traffic signal management system used by Dublin city. Because it doesn’t measure the length of traffic queues at each approach to the traffic light stop line.

There could be one truck (or car) waiting at a red light or 100 trucks with their drivers fuming at 5AM behind the wheel as three trucks get through the junction every time there is a green light (with little or no traffic in opposing directions). SCATS will remain oblivious because it has no upstream queue detection loops in most configurations. One shouldn’t really need traffic cameras to monitor traffic flow at signalised intersections, and to have to make all these manual adjustments in the system to create priorities. The software model should be able to measure flow and queues and have the latitude to alter phase and cycle times to meet demand. 24/24h entirely automatically. With no waste of green time. And give priority to public transport running behind schedule, as well as emergency vehicles on call.

If an intelligent highway management system is to work effectively, it has to take on board the number of vehicles on approach at each junction – so it can ration green periods based on need, and increase the cycle times so that long lines of vehicles coming from a particular direction are given long periods of green to clear the junction en masse. Otherwise the traffic chaos just grows out of control. Breaking large platoons of moving traffic is dumb, because it reduces overall traffic flow efficiency. Causing large platoons of traffic to stand still for no reason when there is no opposing traffic at 5AM is totally brain dead.

Not allowing cars to use the almost totally empty port tunnel during the Christmas peak is also bordering on brain dead.

Not accepting credit cards at toll booths to pay tolls which range up to €12 (particularly at a port with lots of vehicles coming from a foreign currency area and most of whose drivers are unlikely to have €12 in coins is beyond brain dead). Credit card payment of tolls gets three times as many cars through each toll booth as payment by coins or cash because there is no delay fiddling with change or foreign currency or coins not being accepted by a machine because they have some perceived imperfection. Card in, card spewed out, off you go.

There is no concept of customer service in the National Roads Authority or in any of the zillion agencies responsible for roads and traffic in Ireland. No motorway service areas where people can rest and eat on long journeys. No signposting to international standards (eg Geneva convention). No consistency in anything.

Is it not time that all these incompetent agencies were shut down and replaced with a single customer service focused entity? Preferably employing people who have lived in one or more countries where things like this work properly – rather than clueless morons who have lived in Irish style chaos for their entire life!

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Chris_533976

heh. I hate to go OT but I cant believe they called it SCATS. I warn you all, NEVER do a google image search for the word SCAT

probe

Chris_533976 wrote:

heh. I hate to go OT but I cant believe they called it SCATS. I warn you all, NEVER do a google image search for the word SCAT

One learns something every day! They were obviously as thorough at researching the brand name SCATS as they were developing an intelligent traffic management system... Here is a SafeSearch (TM) [hopefully] deviation proof link for you to use for info on SCATS, approved by the Federal Net Nanny Association.

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=SCATS+Traffic&btnG=Search&meta=


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parsi

Hey Probe - now that you've decided to troll somewhere other than the Cork forum can you tell us how you're mythical uberstadt deals with traffic lights ?