An effective network of freeways is essential to provide desired levels of mobility among housing, employment, and recreation centers, and to allow efficient movement of commercial goods. In the past several years, traffic demand on urban freeways has risen rapidly, and prevailing traffic patterns have significantly changed as more and more employment centers have moved to suburban locations. This has led to critical freeway traffic congestion problems in many urban areas. The urban freeway system is essentially completed in most metropolitan areas. New freeways or major expansions in capacity for existing freeways are typically not feasible because of right-of-way, environmental, political, or cost constraints. More and more attention is being focused on maximizing the efficiency of existing freeways to serve increasing traffic demands and reduce traffic congestion levels. This chapter considers the application of surveillance systems and traffic control on urban freeways to achieve this goal.
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