Active Traffic Management
The UK strategic road network has been at the centre of many recent debates on congestion, road pricing, and the need for sustained investment in our infrastructure to keep the economy moving. But one of the areas in which disagreement has given way to genuine progress appears to be Active Traffic Management (ATM).
ATM has a lot of potential and while lots of stakeholders warn that it can never be a replacement for road building schemes and sustained infrastructural investment, there is no doubt that it's one of the best immediate hopes for easing congesting and optimising the use of our strategic road network. Ideally it will not be a case of either ATM or road building, but both.
The big question is, how far can this technology take us?
The Highways Agency has been piloting a scheme on the M42 which included the controversial step of opening the hard shoulder as another lane during peak hours. But this was only a small part of the ATM system - and it was conservatively deployed at that. A major part of the M42 ATM is an overhead gantry system which keeps road users informed about conditions, speed limits and lane availability. The road is also equipped with CCTV and speed cameras which can help identify and manage problems, and it offers off-shoulder refuges which offer distressed vehicles greater protection from passing traffic.
There was no evidence that safety was compromised - no accidents caused by the use of the hard shoulder - although generally such statistics would need to be gathered over a much longer period to be reliable.
The initial results from the M42 scheme have shown smoother and more predictable journeys, and while actual journey times haven't fallen much, they have become more consistent. The overall feeling is that the experiment has been successful - enough so for Secretary of State for Transport Ruth Kelly to earmark a further £150m to express her confidence in ATM and extend the scheme to the 'Birmingham Box', including the M6 Toll and the M6, by 2011.
More interesting than where this technology may be applied is how it may be applied. A feasibility study will be completed by next spring to identify possible locations for ATM but the Highways Agency was encouraged by the M42 trial an might well expand the whole concept of ATM.
