TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT CENTERS, VARIABLE MESSAGE SIGNS AND HIGHWAY ADVISORY RADIO

The most compelling reason for the rapid development of intelligent vehicle highway systems (IVHS) in Japan is the state of traffic congestion. Additional new routes to the existing network have not been able to cope with the tremendous increase in traffic volume. Safety concerns, as well as the desire to provide congestion relief, are the two primary factors that have prompted the concerted program for building a traffic management infrastructure. An important part of that infrastructure is the installation of area traffic control centers or traffic management centers. Traffic management centers facilitate traffic control systems which basically provide three main functions: traffic data collection; traffic data processing; and traffic data presentation or dissemination. This paper reports on three traffic management centers visited during the ITE IVHS study tour of Japan in 1992.