THE ORGANISATION OF TRAFFIC CONTROL IN METROPOLITAN AREAS

The need to retain urban traffic control (utc) under central management has generally been accepted since the existing computer systems cannot realistically be abandoned or fragmented. It is less widely appreciated that signals design, procurement and maintenance is increasingly becoming an integral part of traffic control systems, and in areas such as Greater London it is no longer technically practicable to split certain of these activities between different authorities. Local-tier authorities could, however, take a greater part in the traffic aspects of signal schemes as part of wider highway responsibilities, jointly with a specialist team. This paper concentrates on the interactions between a few large-scale projects currently underway to show that the design of traffic signals is now an integral part of the control and monitoring systems, and that a central team is the necessary way to handle the work. The need for such a team to be central to a metropolitan area has been dictated by the trend in traffic control projects irrespective of whether traffic management in general is carried out by metropolitan or local-tier authorities. Metropolitan fragmentation poses a risk to the integrity of traffic control and safety, and to initiatives and business which would not develop in smaller packages. (TRRL)