intelligent traffic control installation (iVRI)

Province of North Brabant

Safe, autonomous and automatic control of traffic flows at an intersection through an iVRI.

Last change on 10th of July 2024, at 8:13 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Other algorithms
• Impact assessment: Field not filled in.
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

Traffic

Begin date

Field not filled in.

Contact information

[e-mail]

Link to publication website

Talking Traffic (www.talking-traffic.com)

Responsible use

Goal and impact

Objective:

1. Ensure efficient flow at intersections with iVRIs in a safe (without accidents) and credible (without people waiting for nothing / logical sequence) manner. 2. Generate data for checking correct operation by Province, and as input for the central national data point UDAP. 3. The deployment of iVRIs also contributes to improved accessibility, increased travel comfort, road safety and greening of mobility.

Impact:

The algorithm determines the position/colour of the traffic lights and thus whether a citizen is allowed to proceed or must stop.

Considerations

Traffic intensity in and around cities is increasing, the policy goals served by road managers are multiple: traffic flow, accessibility, road safety, liveability, sustainability, economic vitality should all be promoted as much as possible. This should also take into account the different behaviour of traffic participants (walking, cycling, passenger cars, public transport, trucks, emergency and auxiliary services), each with their own characteristics, needs and limitations, where political-administrative priorities regularly require different accents in accommodating one group over another (e.g. more priority for cyclists over passenger cars) and the area also continues to develop and change (think of new residential areas and business premises and/or office locations). Within this playing field of goals, interests and changes, iVRIs are necessary to implement this efficiently in practice.

Human intervention

The formal road authority may intervene in the operation of the iVRI including the algorithm. For each intersection, a unique algorithm is developed by suppliers based on the layout of the intersection and the province's policy. Each intersection consists of hundreds of parameters that can be adjusted by traffic engineers to improve intersection flow based on policies (road safety, flow, liveability).

Risk management

The risks are frequent but also small. As soon as traffic unsafe situations could arise (conflicting directions get green), the algorithm will abort and the traffic lights will start flashing. This is because in addition to the 'control algorithm' that regulates the traffic lights, there is also a control algorithm. The abort is done by this separate safety-control algorithm. Apart from this, general traffic law also applies when the traffic lights are 'flashing'. Traffic safety is a basic design principle in traffic lights and the algorithms used.

Legal basis

The basis for deploying iVRIs is a combination of the province's various tasks (in particular: safety, mobility, spatial planning, and financial tasks).

Operations

Data

The data used by the algorithm is the real-time data measured by the control system itself using, among other things, detection loops and push buttons, as well as data retrieved via nationwide UDAP. These specific data flows (origins from mobiles and on-board computers) are labelled as (potentially) person traceable data. All parties processing this data have to sign a data processor agreement.

Technical design

The algorithm is a cluster of different algorithms from different vendors that all have different nuaces. For each intersection, a unique algorithm is developed by different vendors: https://vialis.nl, https://www.talking-traffic.com/nl/, and www.crow.nl.