The Scottish Executive commissioned FaberMaunsell to advance their technical and operational understanding of Intelligent Road Studs (IRS) and evaluate the potential for trial implementation on the Scottish Trunk Road Network. This project comes under the umbrella of the EU co-funded project, STREETWISE. Following experience with the COMPANION hazard warning system, where speed reductions of 10 to 20% and traffic flow smoothing were experienced, the Executive considered that IRS may provide effective hazard warning and traffic monitoring facilities, enhancing network monitoring capabilities and road safety as an alternative to both COMPANION and traditional methods. Such installations would not only provide an increased service to the network user, but also help toward the European Union target of 80% coverage for monitoring equipment on the Trans European Road Network (TERN). The Executive is currently undertaking trials of an IRS system on the M8 approaching Glasgow with the same salient features as COMPANION so that a direct comparison can be made. This trial system uses standard UK motorway infrastructure and is capable of providing hazard warning, automatic incident detection, traffic monitoring, enhanced lane delineation and fog detection. For the covering abstract please see ITRD E135207.
Samenvatting