Many countries worldwide face congestion on their core roads networks. According to INRIX’s 2017 largest study on global traffic congestion, $305 billion USD (EUR257 Billion) is the cost of congestion in US.
Highways England in the UK estimates that congestion costs on major roads and motorways amount to approximately PS2 billion (EUR2 trillion) each year.
Chris Shannon ,CEO at Fotech Solution , says that the economic burden of congestion has led many countries to test the concept of “smart motorways”. In 2006, the UK was the first to test a smart motorway concept. Since then, the concept has been popularized in many countries including Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
Smart motorways actually come in many different forms. These variations may have subtle differences, but the most obvious features of a smart road are the use of the hard shoulder to provide traffic lanes and the setting of speed limits. These measures are designed to increase road capacity while ensuring traffic flows as smoothly as possible.
“Improvements to Be Made”
The UK has the highest number of deployments and suggests that there are still significant improvements to the technology that underpins smart motorways.
Although data suggests that smart motorways have increased their capacity by as much as a third, a report by the UK’s Department for Transport shows that while smart motorways carried 10.7% motorway traffic during the period 2015-18 (inclusive), they were responsible for 11.4% of serious casualties.
Smart motorways can be a powerful solution to congestion. However, we need to make sure that drivers are not at risk. Smart motorways should actually be safer than the regular road network.
This is possible only if we look at the technology that underpins smart highway initiatives.
Limitations of smart motorways
Smart motorways have a key technical problem: reliance on induction loops and cameras. Loops or cameras are typically installed at 400m along smart motorways. These ‘point’ sensors can not provide continuous monitoring of the whole motorway.
The coverage is not perfect. These gaps can lead to delays or errors that increase driver risk. The DfT report showed that the camera-based system to detect broken vehicles and drivers with issues takes on average 17 minutes to find a vehicle in trouble.
The rescue team takes another 17 minutes to arrive at the scene. A half-hour response time on a motorway is a serious risk to drivers who are in trouble.
It is expensive to install sensors at greater frequency. There will always be compromises in coverage. How can technology be used to increase performance, and speed up incident detection?
Using fibre network as an additional sensor
Potentially, there is already a solution in place. This fibre could be used as a sensor by itself. Fibre owners and installers have a great opportunity to add more value to smart motorway systems.
Distributed Acoustic Sensor technology (DAS), which can be used to convert fibre installed along a motorway into thousands of vibration sensors, is a great way to make the cable as powerful as an army of microphones.
These vibration sensors detect the unique “acoustic signature” of road disturbances or changes in vehicle behaviour (i.e. Operators will be notified about incidents, whereabouts and how they occurred.
This fibre-based system provides complete coverage along the length of the motorway. It ‘fills in’ the gaps between loops and cameras to improve the effectiveness and accuracy in identifying incidents.
Fibre sensors can also send out automated alerts in real time, increasing response times. This is critical to minimize disruptions and reduce risks for drivers.
Although smart motorways are still in their infancy it is evident that they offer a viable solution to congestion. Safety of road users is paramount. Existing sensors offer a limited level of performance. However, it is important to explore all technology available that will increase the effectiveness and minimize risk. This is where fibre infrastructure plays a huge role.
