Citation

Treiterer J. Highw. Res. Rec. 1972; 421: 78-84.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1972, National Research Council (U.S.A.), Highway Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Two different types of infrared remote-sensing systems for longitudinal traffic control have been studied to prevent rear-end collisions and break-downs in traffic flow and to improve the quality and capacity of traffic flow. A prototype of the infrared source-sensor has been built and tested in freeway driving, and some basic research on a self-contained infrared remote-sensing system was carried out. Because a control system of the car-following type has to restrict itself to vehicles in the same traffic lane, the problem of target identification in freeway traffic has also been researched. It appears that the present driver information system provided by traffic signs can be improved considerably by infrared sensing for the spacing of vehicles and by lane coding for continuous driver information and proper target identification. The source-sensor system has the disadvantage that all vehicles must be instrumented to make up an effective sensing system. The self-contained system can be introduced by leaving it to the individual driver whether he wants to spend money for equipment providing more safety and easier driving. If all vehicles could be joined in an infrared longitudinal control system, traffic capacity could be increased to about 4,000 vehicles/lane/hour at 40 mph on urban freeways.

Language: en

Keywords

HIGHWAY TRAFFIC CONTROL; INFRARED IMAGING