URBAN TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS: A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

摘要

The objective of this paper is to establish the state-of-the-art of urban traffic management in Europe,with a particular focus on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), using data collected from 34 citiesdirectly with the help of a purpose-developed questionnaire. Several areas of traffic management arecovered, such as: general statistics of the transport systems, organisational structures, monitoring andforecasting, provision of traffic information and urban traffic control. Special focus is also given todemand management, traffic control centres, public transport and parking. Broadly summarising theresults, it can be said that a wide range of traffic management technologies and policies are used inEurope. It is encouraging to see that strategic plans and traffic control centres are generally present inthe participating cities, as well as facilities for public transport, ITS technologies and real-time publictransport information. In addition, most cities have cycling infrastructure, pedestrian zones andalternative mobility schemes, as well as good policies for weaker population categories, such as theelderly, the jobless and the disabled. While the study has some limitations with respect to thereliability of the data provided by the cities, mainly originating from different definitions or from theabsence of data all together, it can be considered a fairly good overview of the state-of-the art of urbantraffic management in Europe.