Wireless communications to road users and within urban traffic management and control systems

The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions' Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC) 5-year research and development programme is aimed at promoting open systems that support future traffic management policies and measures, both in the UK and overseas. The programme comprises a number of projects investigating various aspects of traffic control systems infrastructure and applications. A key aspect of UTMC systems is the definition of cost effective communication architectures that take account of existing and future developments in communication technologies. Whilst the core UTC communications links have traditionally been based upon landline telephone networks, the potential for deploying wireless communications is being investigated in the UTMC Programme by the UTMC14 project, which is concerned with wireless communication links both within UTMC systems and to road users.