The Urban Traffic Management Control or UTMC programme is the main initiative in the United Kingdom for the development of a more open approach to Intelligent Transport Systems or ITS in urban areas. Originating as a Government research programme, the initiative is now managed by a community forum, the UTMC Development Group, which represents both local transport authorities and the systems industry.
UTMC systems are designed to allow the different applications used within modern traffic management systems to communicate and share information with each other. This allows previously disparate data from multiple sources such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, Variable Message Signs (VMS), car parks, traffic signals, air quality monitoring stations and meteorological data, to be amalgamated into a central console or database. The idea behind UTMC is to maximise road network potential to create a more robust and intelligent system that can be used to meet current and future management requirements.
The UTMC was launched in 1997 by the UK Government's Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (now the Department for Transport (DfT)). During the first three years, a number of research projects were undertaken to establish and validate an approach based on modular systems and open standards. These have contributed to the UTMC Technical Specifications, which define UTMC standards.
UTMC has helped local authorities achieve their goals by adopting an appropriate, but not over constraining, set of standards to allow users, suppliers and integrators of UTMC systems to plan and supply systems cost-effectively in an open market. These standards are essential in breaking boundaries and local authority borders to allow network interoperability.
The UTMC Specifications and Standards Group (S&SG) is responsible for ensuring that the UTMC technical framework continues to meet local authorities' needs, currently and in the future. The S&SG oversees the maintenance and upkeep of the UTMC Technical Specifications. Its members are drawn from both local authorities and the supplier community, but it is always led by local authorities.
The S&SG works closely with the full range of UTMC suppliers to ensure its requirements are technically achievable. It operates a transparent consultation regime on all technical changes. From time to time it may commission and fund technical research and standards development activities, though it operates principally through coordinating the input freely provided by suppliers and users.
The Specification provides standards for shared data (i.e. data communicated between applications of a UTMC system, or between a UTMC system and an external system) through:
As well as undertaking technical work to develop national specifications, there are a number of activities that help "market" the initiative to the traffic management community. There is a conference, usually held annually, papers and articles are published in key industry journals and regular workshops are held focusing on key (technical or operational) themes. In 2006, the UTMC community ran a number of special sessions at the ITS World Congress held in London, as well as running a village of suppliers demonstrating UTMC-compatible products.
The UTMC initiative formerly published a Products Catalogue, representing products submitted as compliant by suppliers. This was discontinued in December 2014.
The following documents are maintained and published for open use on the UTMC website.
The current issue of the Technical Specification is available for free download on the UTMC resources website .
Local authorities with UTMC have more control over their road network. Some examples of what they can do are:
Advise
By monitoring how long it takes a vehicle to pass two ANPR cameras and then dividing the time by the distance between the cameras, an average speed can be measured and used to inform motorists via VMS how long it will take them to reach a destination, or to set diversions. Example by Envitia: VMS in Aberdeen . Example by IDT: Journey time monitoring in Birmingham
Warn
Wind detectors attached to a bridge give drivers of high sided vehicles warnings before they cross. The warning messages are displayed on VMS signs activated when wind speed thresholds are exceeded. Example by Siemens: Bridge VMSs offer wind warnings .
Guide
By linking parking guidance systems to a common database traffic control room operators can inform motorists via strategic VMS about the current state of car parks; especially useful for special events like carnivals when normal use is exceeded. Example by Mott MacDonald: Car Park Guidance in Edinburgh
Previously these systems would have been impracticable due to the sheer volumes of data processing and the operator time needed to apply constant manual updates.
The JCG was created in 2004 to bring together the UDG with other key ITS community organisations; it was later expanded to include representation from the Department for Transport and the Highways Agency. The JCG's aim was to ensure that the strategic direction of the various groups and bodies involved in UK ITS was kept aligned.
The JCG was suspended in September 2012, as the prevailing financial conditions had reduced the resource available to its participants.
UTMC builds on a base of mainstream internet protocols, and focusses on defining data structures suitable for exchange between ITS systems and devices. At the time of its origination there were few available international standards to build on, and the research was therefore used to generate many of its own standards. However, for exchange between central systems (for example, B2B data exchange between neighbouring roads authorities), UTMC refers to the specifications of the European project DATEX.
DATEX (as Datex II) is now being standardized through the European standards agency CEN and UTMC has been involved in a number of European standards-related projects, notably POSSE (Promotion of Open Specifications and Standards in Europe). There is a current workstream within UTMC aiming to align the UTMC Technical Specification more closely with Datex II.
Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based electronic educational technology. It defines communications between client side content and a host system, which is commonly supported by a learning management system. SCORM also defines how content may be packaged into a transferable ZIP file called "Package Interchange Format."
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.
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.
IEEE 802.11p is an approved amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard to add wireless access in vehicular environments (WAVE), a vehicular communication system. It defines enhancements to 802.11 required to support Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. This includes data exchange between high-speed vehicles and between the vehicles and the roadside infrastructure, so called V2X communication, in the licensed ITS band of 5.9 GHz (5.85–5.925 GHz). IEEE 1609 is a higher layer standard based on the IEEE 802.11p. It is also the basis of a European standard for vehicular communication known as ETSI ITS-G5.
Airlines for America (A4A), formerly known as Air Transport Association of America (ATA), is an American trade association and lobbying group based in Washington, D.C. that represents major North American airlines since 1936.
The Integrated Transport Information System (ITIS) is a traffic management system in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The system began operation on 2005 with the cooperation of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), Malaysian Highway Authority, Malaysian Public Works Department (JKR) and the Ministry of Transport Malaysia. The system is used for traffic monitoring, accident, construction and other situations that happen on the roads and highways in Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley. The main ITIS headquarters and traffic operation centre is located at Bukit Jalil Highway near Technology Park Malaysia in Bukit Jalil.
Vehicle infrastructure integration (VII) is an initiative fostering research and applications development for a series of technologies directly linking road vehicles to their physical surroundings, first and foremost in order to improve road safety. The technology draws on several disciplines, including transport engineering, electrical engineering, automotive engineering, and computer science. VII specifically covers road transport although similar technologies are in place or under development for other modes of transport. Planes, for example, use ground-based beacons for automated guidance, allowing the autopilot to fly the plane without human intervention. In highway engineering, improving the safety of a roadway can enhance overall efficiency. VII targets improvements in both safety and efficiency.
Map database management systems are software programs designed to store and recall spatial information for navigation applications, and are thus a form of Geographic information system. They are widely used in localization and navigation, especially in automotive applications. Moreover, they are playing an increasingly important role in the emerging areas of location-based services, active safety functions and advanced driver-assistance systems. Common to these functions is the requirement for an on-board map database that contains information describing the road network.
The National Transportation Communications for Intelligent Transportation System Protocol (NTCIP) is a family of standards designed to achieve interoperability and interchangeability between computers and electronic traffic control equipment from different manufacturers.
Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) is a general term to describe systems that are used in commercial fishing to allow environmental and fisheries regulatory organizations to track and monitor the activities of fishing vessels. They are a key part of monitoring control and surveillance (MCS) programs at national and international levels. VMS may be used to monitor vessels in the territorial waters of a country or a subdivision of a country, or in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) that extend 200 nautical miles (370.4 km) from the coasts of many countries. VMS systems are used to improve the management and sustainability of the marine environment, through ensuring proper fishing practices and the prevention of illegal fishing, and thus protect and enhance the livelihoods of fishermen.
Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) is a technology for automatically reading vehicle number plates. The Home Office states ANPR is used by law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom to help detect, deter and disrupt criminality including tackling organised crime groups and terrorists.
The Real Time Information Group is an organisation in the United Kingdom supporting the development of bus passenger information systems; its 45 members include local authorities, bus operators, consultants and system suppliers together with representatives from the UK government.
Intelligent speed assistance (ISA), or intelligent speed adaptation, also known as alerting, and intelligent authority, is any system that ensures that vehicle speed does not exceed a safe or legally enforced speed. In case of potential speeding, the driver can be alerted or the speed reduced automatically.
Transport standards organisations is an article transport Standards organisations, consortia and groups that are involved in producing and maintaining standards that are relevant to the global transport technology, transport journey planning and transport ticket/retailing industry. Transport systems are inherently distributed systems with complex information requirements. Robust modern standards for transport data are important for the safe and efficient operation of transport systems. These include:
Transmodel is the CEN European Reference Data Model for Public Transport Information; it provides a conceptual model of common public transport concepts and data structures that can be used to build many different kinds of public transport information system, including for timetabling, fares, operational management, real time data, journey planning etc.
The Handle System is the Corporation for National Research Initiatives's proprietary registry assigning persistent identifiers, or handles, to information resources, and for resolving "those handles into the information necessary to locate, access, and otherwise make use of the resources".
The Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) is a suite of XML-based messaging standards that facilitate emergency information sharing between government entities and the full range of emergency-related organizations. EDXL standardizes messaging formats for communications between these parties. EDXL was developed as a royalty-free standard by the OASIS International Open Standards Consortium.
Prostep ivip is an association with its headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany. Founded in 1993 as the ProSTEP Association for the Promotion of Product Data Standards and later renamed to ProSTEP iViP Association in 2002, and since May 2017 the association's name has been written as "prostep ivip". Prostep ivip is a globally active, independent association of 180 member companies from industry, IT and research. It is an industry-driven association and its main focuses are on the digital transformation in product creation and production. By designing digital transformation in the manufacturing industry prostep ivip defines and aggregates the requirements of manufacturers and suppliers, intending to define standards and interfaces primarily for the digitalization of the entire product creation process – from idea to implementation.
Datex II or Datex2 is a data exchange standard for exchanging traffic information between traffic management centres, traffic service providers, traffic operators and media partners. It contains for example traffic incidents, current road works and other special traffic-related events. These data is presented in XML-format and is modeled with UML. The standard is developed by the technical body Intelligent transport systems of the European Committee for Standardization.