Managing Congestion in Large Brazilian Urban Area through Logical Interface between SCOOT and GIS Platform

Abstract

Effective management of traffic congestion is based on a continuous, systematic understanding of travel behavior in the urban network. A continuous effort of data collection, treatment, and analysis is demanded and requires time, financial resources, and skilled staff. An efficient alternative for urban traffic management consists of implementing traffic management centers (TMCs), which collect, model, and store data relating to traffic conditions. However, the operational systems usually implemented in those centers do not offer effective mechanisms for consulting their databases because they are designed with an emphasis on traffic signal control. This work presents the development of a logical interface between the dynamic database of the TMC of Fortaleza, Brazil (CTAFOR), and the TransCAD geographic information system (GIS) platform. This interface combines an open modular architecture and a spatiotemporal model to import dynamic traffic data into the static GIS platform. The interface also provides flexible, efficient access to the data collected in real time by CTAFOR's adaptive traffic control system, SCOOT, and gives the data a spatial attribute in TransCAD software. With the interface available, the second main objective was to implement performance measures to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the operational actions taken in the area controlled by CTAFOR and assess how well the objectives set to the TMC are being achieved. After the development of the TRANSCOOT interface, the ITS data collected and simulated at CTAFOR have been used to support real-time operations and to allow tactical, strategic decision analyses, based on performance measures aggregated by their spatial and temporal attributes.