In many cases the current generation of Traffic Management Systems are being developed utilizing innovations in the area of Information Technology and Information Systems which have been developed for other applications. Traditionally, systems for managing urban and freeway traffic have been custom developed on specific hardware and software platforms, using conventional sequential file structures in both high level programming languages (usually FORTRAN) and assembler. These systems for the most part have worked reasonably well in accomplishing their principal objectives of controlling and monitoring traffic. However, with the advent of Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems (IVHS) these traditional systems do not offer these traditional systems do not offer the degree of flexibility and expansion required to meet the new demands for information being placed upon them. This paper discusses some of these new requirements, the interdisciplinary and interjurisdictional nature of these requirements, and how advances in information technology can be used to address these needs. The paper raises questions on how this data, which is now readily available, can be shared with and used by other transportation agencies and research institutes. It also addresses how it can be communicated through the electronic highways being developed. Examples of how this technology is being incorporated into a variety of institutions in Canada, the United States and Asia are presented. These are based upon the author's experience developing traffic management systems in many parts of the world. (A)
Abstract