Improving capacity of transportation networks using means of the intelligent transportation system

摘要

The purpose of this study was to find how transportation networks capacity can be improved using means of the intelligent transportation system in Finland. The focal area of the study was road traffic but means of the railway traffic and the marine traffic has also been presented.The background of the study is that there is lack of capacity in main roads and in railways especially in Helsinki metropolitan area. Capacity problems occur also elsewhere in Finland and in the future problems will increase. The marine transport has usually enough capacity and problems occur mainly in harbors. In the marine transport the functionality of transport chains is more essential.According to the results of the study the best way to improve the capacity of roads is incident management. In urban areas the capacity can be also make better using intelligent traffic lights and optimizing existing traffic lights with the current traffic conditions. Other efficient means are traffic information and the route guidance. In suburban roads the most effective ways to improve the capacity are incident management, variable speed limits, traffic information and route guidance. Other means are ramp metering, variable directional lanes and hard should running.The most significant changes in railway transport caused be ITS may be that the computer-aided decision-making become more general. Some of the tasks of transport operator can be transferred to computers and operators can focus on more important tasks. Also the development of the train control system will increase railway capacity. Key objective in marine traffic is to intensify the transmission of information to improve the functioning of the transport chains.In the future the solution for the traffic capacity problems can be the developments of vehicle technology. When management of driving shifts from a driver to a computer, human errors will reduce and thereby traffic incident will decrease. Vehicle intelligence evolves to increase the capacity of road, for example by decreasing the vehicle's safe following distance.