This paper describes a tool developed to implement automatic and intelligent procedures finalised to monitor and detect anomalous situations in densely trafficked urban networks. Aim of the tool is to help system operators and/or traffic engineers to evaluate the dynamic of the traffic in a wide controlled area. The tool is named INDICA (Integrated Network Dynamic Incident and Congestion Analysis). It has been designed to be integrated at the central level of a generic UTC (Urban Traffic Control) system; currently it has been integrated into the UTOPIA (Urban Traffic Optimisation by Integrated Automation) system. The tool requires for its operation an online traffic database containing measures and/or estimates of traffic variables like queues, flows, saturation flows, device diagnosis and an historical database where the previous parameters are archived. Checking changes of current values respect historical profiles the tool is able to identify performance indicators of the network status and to provide valid guidelines to evaluate the impact of the control strategies. Satisfying diagnostic and monitoring functions this tool has the capability to: (1) Address the attention of the traffic engineer directly where traffic problems arise; (2) Shorten the time needed to identify and solve the problems; and (3) Provide the data to analyse the evolution of demand versus efficiency and environmental indicators to support planning long-term traffic control policies. This paper reports application fields and test cases in order to underline the importance of this system performance check tool in a traffic control system context.
Abstract