The SCOOT (Split Cycle and Offset Optimisation Technique) urban traffic control system is now operational at over 30 sites in the UK and in overseas cities, including Beijing (Peoples Republic of China), Hong Kong and Red Deer (Canada). SCOOT has been shown to reduce the delay to vehicles by an average of 12 percent compared to up-to-date TRANSYT fixed time plans and by 20 percent compared to fixed time plans which are about 3 years old. SCOOT is a fully adaptive system which collects data from vehicle detectors and then calculates and implements the settings which reduce delay and stops. The SCOOT computer program contains a traffic model of each section of road in the network and knows at any time the flow, queue, congestion and spare capacity throughout the network. This `knowledge' of SCOOT can be used for purposes other than traffic control and research has been continuing to exploit its potential in two main areas: traffic management and traffic information.(A)
Samenvatting