Freeway traffic systems

The efficient management of freeway traffic networks is a very crucial issue in all the developed countries, where advanced technologies and methodologies have been designed and are still under development in order to provide the users with a safe, sustainable, coordinated and smart traffic system. One of the main negative points experienced by travellers in freeways is surely the formation of congestion phenomena, but other related aspects must be taken into consideration, such as pollutant emissions, fuel consumption, safety and noise. This chapter investigates the main issues associated with freeway traffic systems and introduces some key concepts about the possibility of managing and controlling freeways in order to enhance the mobility of people and goods, paying attention to the new developments in information and communication technologies

Emerging freeway traffic control strategies

Classical freeway traffic control approaches can be conveniently revisited in the light of the new technologies which have revolutionised data collection, data processing, communications and computing. In this chapter, the emerging freeway traffic control paradigms are illustrated, without claiming to be exhaustive, as the emerging control concepts are constantly evolving together with the new technologies on which they are based. The scenarios that unfold on the horizon are incredibly dense with potentialities and opportunities. Traffic data acquisition can be performed supplementing fixed sensors with probe vehicles. The overall traffic flow, even in case of mixed traffic consisting of conventional vehicles and intelligent vehicles, can be influenced by acting in a coordinated way at the level of the single intelligent vehicle. Large amounts of data can be collected, also exploiting unconventional data sources like social networks, making of paramount importance the development of traffic-oriented big data technologies, as well as efficient data mining techniques, in order to distinguish between useful and non-useful data and suitably process them. Privacy-preserving data sharing, cybersecurity, fault-tolerance and resilience concepts also play an important role in this new and challenging scenario