A prototype of an integrated advanced traffic management system for the Columbus area: an interface between the traffic signal control and the freeway management systems

The Columbus metropolitan area is one of the few growing areas of the Midwest and has been the fastest growing metropolitan area in Ohio for some time. Delaware County, north of Columbus, is one of the highest growth counties in the nation. While generally the employment and population growth in the Columbus area has been positive, unprecedented traffic problems have been developing in the Columbus area due to the growth, and due to the continuous increase in single occupancy auto travel. Traffic congestion that has now become common in the Columbus area, is only expected to worsen as growth continues, and as needed expansion of transportation infrastructure falls further behind. The traffic congestion that has resulted, affects not only the freeway mainline, but also many of the interchanges and the arterial streets serving the interchanges. Columbus is designing a state-of-the-art Freeway Traffic Management System, is expanding an advanced Urban Traffic Control System, and is maintaining a number of closed-loop systems. Each one of these systems has been designed to operate very efficiently and optimize the traffic operations in their own domain; nevertheless, the combined operations are bound to be sub-optimal, because the systems operate uncooperatively on the same large urban traffic domain. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop an interface that by utilizing the existing traffic signal control systems infrastructure (control devices, software and hardware) and by building relatively inexpensive software and hardware, will produce a prototype for an integrated freeway-surface street control system.