Traffic Monitoring and Congestion Management in the SCOOT Urban Traffic Control System

Abstract

The SCOOT Urban Traffic Control system is now operating in over 170 cities worldwide, including 7 systems in North America. Since the first system was installed, there has been a continuous program of research and development to provide new facilities to meet the requirement of the traffic manager. The latest version of SCOOT (Version 3.1) incorporates a traffic information database, ASTRID, and an incident-detection system, INGRID, and provides a number of facilities for congestion control. The traffic monitoring facilities of SCOOT, including a new facility to estimate emissions from vehicles, and the current program of work to enhance the incident-detection system and to provide additional facilities to manage incidents and congestion are reported in this paper. The work is being carried out as part of the European Union, DGXIII 4th Framework project, COSMOS, with additional funding from the UK Department of Transport. The enhanced system is to be installed in the Kingston Borough of London, where it will be tested in combination with congestion warning information provided by variable message signs.