Our priorities are to:
- make Essex travel comfortable and convenient
- detect and respond to incidents and accidents on the network, minimising their impact on traffic
- provide comprehensive traffic and travel information through a range of channels
- work with relevant third parties to deliver a first class service to the travelling public within Essex
- encourage the use of the sustainable modes of transport
- improve the effectiveness of the county’s existing strategic road network
- reduce times across the network
- influence travel patterns
- reduce car park search times within town centres.
Traffic Management in Essex
Traffic Control Centre Operators use a
number of systems, and communication links to obtain, record and report on the roads. These include:
- any traffic incidents and patterns such as congestion ’hot spots’,
- congestion resulting from a road traffic accident, ongoing road works or broken down vehicles.
The Operators can then pass this information onto the Essex public. We will also keep you updated on any major roadwork schemes and events, such as town carnivals or music festivals that may have an effect on the roads.
We keep regular contact with Area Highway Offices for Roadwork Information, Essex Police and the Motorway Police. We can react to road incidents and congestion promptly and notify local radio stations so they in turn can relay the information to the public.
We also inform local bus companies, Essex Ambulance, and have established good third party relations with TrafficLink, ITIS, Highways Agency and other organisations.
The systems used are:
The COMET system acts as a ‘front-end’ interface for other systems. They feed into COMET to give the operators statistical figures, such as journey times for identified busy routes into towns. It is also used to log all incidents reported to the centre, enabling us to obtain statistical reports.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology provides an accurate tool for monitoring journey times. The data is collected to calculate the time it takes for a vehicle to travel between two points on the road network. Two or more ANPR cameras are placed at either end of a route, using a vehicle’s number plate to calculate the time taken. The number plate information is scrambled and only used for journey time information.
This information can then be used by the staff within the Control Centre to monitor traffic flows and examine the reliability of journey times between locations.
Please note: The system is unable to track individual vehicles and the it cannot be used for any traffic enforcement purposes.
CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) is used to confirm any traffic patterns the operators need to report upon. The CCTV system is being continually upgraded to cover the congestion ‘hotspots’ throughout the county.
Variable Message Signs are electronic signs, located in strategic places around Essex so operators can inform the public quickly about potential delays.
The signs are placed at some of the key decision points along the Essex road network, such as the A127, A130, A138 Parkway and the A414.
The Car Park Guidance system allows the public to see what spaces are available in each town centre car park. This is done using an electronic sign, located at the major inbound routes towards towns. Drivers are able to make an early decision on which car parks to use and which are full. This results in less queuing and congestion on our roads.
Journey Time information is derived of data from scoot loops that are inserted into the ground at Traffic Signal junction locations. These record the amount and speed of traffic passing through the junction.
Count detectors are also used, giving the same data as scoot loops, but are not linked to traffic signals. From this the Control Centre operators can see if traffic is flowing at a normal rate for the time of day or if it is congested.
TRIPS is a real-time passenger information and bus priority system, developed as a joint project between Essex County Council, Southend on Sea Borough Council and Thurrock Council, with close co-operation from local bus operators.
It gives the public real-time information via the electronic signs at bus stops. It provides accurate, up to the minute information about bus departures and provides late running buses with priority at signalised junctions.
The information is shown on the signs as a minute countdown. If an actual time is displayed then this is the service timetable time.
For TRIPS to give real-time information we rely on bus drivers to log onto an On-Bus Unit giving details of the service (or route) they are running on.
Operators monitor the system to maximise the amount of real-time information displayed.
The information relayed from buses may also provide indication of congestion to be investigated by staff. Finally, any significant disruptions can be highlighted by special messages on the bus-stop signs.
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