The current UK Highways Agency CCTV system is called 2nd Generation CCTV. [1] [2] [3] This CCTV system has been produced from a set of specification developed by the Highways Agency, to allow it to effectively monitor traffic on England motorways and trunk roads. The network currently includes over 1500 cameras operated from 7 regional control centres across England.
The Highways Agency's original CCTV system or Highways Agency Surveillance CCTV system was used primarily to assist the police with the management of traffic on motorway and trunk roads. It was typically formed out of a number of smaller networks working in isolation. Each of these small networks consisted of between 10 and 100 cameras that provided images to a single control room and had little provision for third parties. These networks often required a specific manufacturer's camera, restricting the Highways Agency's control over technology and cost.
As the use of CCTV became more important third parties (e.g. fire service, motoring organisations, radio stations) began to require controlled access to road images and the business case for a more nationally controlled network became apparent. Therefore, to maximise control over its own assets the Highways Agency decided to develop its own CCTV protocols and specifications called 2nd Generation CCTV.
Around the world countries that have mature Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) for traffic monitoring have implemented similar protocols, such as in the United States with National Transportation Communication for ITS Protocol (NTCIP). [4] However, in countries where traffic monitoring CCTV is in its infancy the use of individual manufacture CCTV protocols (e.g. Pelco D) is more wide spread.
The second-generation CCTV system uses a range of protocols and standards currently in general use in other CCTV and electrical communication systems. These include CORBA [5] middleware technology to interface between legacy analogue CCTV systems and CCTV components developed by different organisations, and TCP/IP and UDP for network communications.
These cameras have many capabilities:
The 2nd Generation CCTV system removed the short-comings of the original CCTV system and was designed to meet the Highways Agency's future needs, by:
The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The 117-mile (188-kilometre) motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 the longest ring road in Europe upon opening. The Dartford Crossing completes the orbital route but is not classed as motorway; it is classed as a trunk road and designated as the A282. In some cases, including notable legal contexts such as the Communications Act 2003, the M25 is used as a de facto alternative boundary for Greater London.
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly transmitted, though it may employ point-to-point (P2P), point-to-multipoint (P2MP), or mesh wired or wireless links. Even though almost all video cameras fit this definition, the term is most often applied to those used for surveillance in areas that require additional security or ongoing monitoring.
An intelligent transportation system (ITS) is an advanced application which aims to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management and enable users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and 'smarter' use of transport networks.
The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely complete by 1980, though a non-motorway section around Briton Ferry bridge remained until 1993. On the opening of the Second Severn Crossing in 1996, the M4 was rerouted over it.
A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road, usually connecting two or more cities, ports, airports and other places, which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic. Many trunk roads have segregated lanes in a dual carriageway, or are of motorway standard.
National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all four UK administrations, through the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. Within England, it operates information services through the provision of on-road signage and its Traffic England website, provides traffic officers to deal with incidents on its network, and manages the delivery of improvement schemes to the network.
London Streets is an arm of Transport for London (TfL) which is responsible for managing identified greatest through-routes in Greater London – 580 km of roads. It was known as TfL Street Management for many years until the start of the 2007 fiscal year.
Automatic number-plate recognition is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit television, road-rule enforcement cameras, or cameras specifically designed for the task. ANPR is used by police forces around the world for law enforcement purposes, including checking if a vehicle is registered or licensed. It is also used for electronic toll collection on pay-per-use roads and as a method of cataloguing the movements of traffic, for example by highways agencies.
Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling, usually abbreviated to MIDAS, is a UK distributed network of traffic sensors, mainly inductive loops, which are designed to alert the local regional control centre (RCC) to traffic flow and average speeds, and set variable message signs and advisory speed limits with little human intervention. Companies such as RAC, TomTom and Google use this traffic flow data via halogens reporting systems.
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms include throughway and parkway. Some of these may be limited-access highways, although this term can also refer to a class of highways with somewhat less isolation from other traffic.
The Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) is a series of 15 volumes that provide standards, advice notes and other documents relating to the design, assessment and operation of trunk roads, including motorways in the United Kingdom, and, with some amendments, the Republic of Ireland. It also forms the basis of the road design standards used in many other countries.
The United Kingdom has a well developed and extensive network of roads totalling about 262,300 miles (422,100 km). Road distances are shown in miles or yards and UK speed limits are indicated in miles per hour (mph) or by the use of the national speed limit (NSL) symbol. Some vehicle categories have various lower maximum limits enforced by speed limiters. A unified numbering system is in place for Great Britain, whilst in Northern Ireland, there is no available explanation for the allocation of road numbers.
Transport Scotland is the national transport agency of Scotland. It was established by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, and began operating on 1 January 2006 as an executive agency of the Scottish Government.
Traffic reporting is the near real-time distribution of information about road conditions such as traffic congestion, detours, and traffic collisions. The reports help drivers anticipate and avoid traffic problems. Traffic reports, especially in cities, may also report on major delays to mass transit that does not necessarily involve roads. In addition to periodic broadcast reports, traffic information can be transmitted to GPS units, smartphones, and personal computers.
The TV Network Protocol or TVNP as it is more commonly referred to is an open network protocol developed to enable CCTV systems from any manufacturer to be integrated into an existing CCTV network. It provides high levels of support for audio routing, video routing and camera control.
Active traffic management is a method of increasing peak capacity and smoothing traffic flows on busy major highways. Techniques include variable speed limits, hard-shoulder running and ramp-metering controlled by overhead variable message signs. It has been implemented in several countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
National Highways traffic officers, previously Highways Agency traffic officer (HATO), are employed by the National Highways.
Driver location signs are signs placed every 500 metres (550 yd) along each side of English motorways, and some other major English roads, to provide information that will allow motorists to know their precise location. As of July 2009, roads in England, but not Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, have these signs. This information might be useful in the event of an emergency or breakdown. They were first introduced in 2003, and they complement distance marker posts. Both types of sign display a unique location number. The number, although given without units, is the distance in kilometres from a designated datum location for the road, although signs meant for driver navigation are in miles.
A smart motorway, also known in Scotland as an intelligent transport system, is a section of motorway in the United Kingdom that employs active traffic management (ATM) techniques to increase capacity through the use of MIDAS technology including variable speed limits and occasionally hard shoulder running and ramp metering at busy times. They were developed at the turn of the 21st century as a cost-effective alternative to traditional carriageway widening, with intended benefits ranging from more reliable journey times to lower vehicle emissions. However, despite the risk of a collision occurring between two moving vehicles being found to be decreased, there has been an acknowledged rise in the incidence of collisions involving vehicles where at least one was stationary in the first few years following the widespread removal of the hard shoulder on the country's busiest sections of motorway. Smart motorways garnered intense criticism from politicians, police representatives and motoring organisations, particularly from 2020 onwards, after a surge in near miss incidents and dozens of fatalities were revealed, and as of April 2023, no new smart motorways will be built.
The National Roads Telecommunications Services is the fibre-optic network of communication and control that National Highways uses to monitor England's roads. Its design has allowed active traffic management, that has led to managed motorways.
