By Will Sturgeon, 30 March 2006 11:55
NEWS
The Highways Agency has announced the opening of a £160m National Traffic Control Centre to provide more effective real-time updates on the state of the UK motorway network.
The Agency claims the launch will help drivers to plan their journeys better as the centre, based near the M5 at Quinton, Birmingham, draws data from 3,750 road sensors and 700 CCTV cameras as well as compiling information from the Highways Agency, police forces and weather forecasts.
The centre will also solicit data from entertainment venues - such as large stadia - in an attempt to predict spikes in traffic around major events.
Drivers will be able to access this information online or via a 24-hour automated phone line.
Relevant information will also be displayed on roadside electronic message boards.
The launch supports other current and forthcoming innovations in enabling drivers to get better real-time data on the road networks, such as accessing information via mobile phones.
Speaking to silicon.com last year about the planned improvements soon to see the light of day, Denise Plumpton, information director at the Highways Agency, said: ""People want to know what to do [when stuck in traffic]. Do I just phone home and say I'm slightly delayed, do I plan to get off at the next exit or do I drive into the next motorway services and have a drink or dinner because I know there's no point in going any further?
"We need to be able to give people sufficient information about what we believe the expected delay is going to be to their journey so that they can make those judgments."
Comments
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1. anon
"Relevant information will also be displayed on roadside electronic message boards."
This really will be a novelty ! a few days ago on the M6-M5 we had some helpful advice..60 then 40 then 50 then 30...and no apparent "problem" before the next one that said 'End' no wonder then that the majority of drivers ignored it all , and wondered why I was trying to cause an accident by following the 'advice'. Themn there was the one about the motorway being closed in both directions; plenty of warning; a group of Britain's finest kicking their heels on the motorway itself as we all filed off it at the junction before the one listed on the boards ! and then absolutely NOTHING AT ALL telling you where the diversion should be. my passenger suggested Gloucester bypass...what a pleasant little country lane this turned out to be! I guess the average speed zero going North, and about 5 mph going South, despite the overly large Portakabin atop the rather undersize lorry beneath; I thought he did rather well at the roundabouts, keeping the load on the vehicle and missing the pretty trees.
YES some ACTUAL, useful information would be a BIG improvement. HA bloody Ha.
actually a graphic showing the bad and the good routes would be(a miracle) nice.
2. Jeremy Wickins
My favourite is the warnings about a blockage - at least 40 MILES before the actual incident! I can get on the M1 at J33, and be immediately informed of a queue on the A1(M) around Thirsk, or somewhere, or go a few junctions down (about J29), and be told about problems around Towcester, yet still have no information about a closer problem in enough time to get off the motorway. If anyone at the Highways Agency is reading this - please, talk to road users about what we think is "relevant information"!
3. anonymous
That's all fine and dandy for you but please spare a thought for those of us whose local motorways, M3 and M27, are largely devoid of electronic boards. We still have the central reservation posts which indicate the speed and possibly the word FOG or END but that's about it. The radio is the only way to know of problems ahead.
4. Chris Goodman
If the funding that has been, and is planned to be, spent on management cameras and systems across our motorways and main roads and the servicing, repair and replacement of these systems and their operators had been spent on eliminating bottlenecks and badly designed roadways, then we wouldn't need the systems in the first place.
I am convinced it is a back door way of bringing in a number plate recognition camera system to record our movements.