M62 - Your Local History
A lot of finds were uncovered during the archaeological evaluation carried out for the M62 Junction 6 Improvement scheme so we thought it would be nice to provide an interactive website so you can see what we found.
Better information for your journey
The National Traffic Control Centre collects real-time information on road conditions
Lane Hog!
John Stapleton looks into why people Lane Hog and what effects it has on the driver hogging the lane and other road users.
Educating tomorrow's drivers
See how we are driving through key messages about safety on our network for the drivers of tomorrow.
Meet the Ancestors
Find out about the history of roads and the work the Agency does to preserve archaeological remains.
See when traffic will be lightest
Our traffic forecaster can help get you there quicker
Motorway On-Line Advisor
Introduction
In recent years traffic volumes have risen to such an extent that parts of the motorway network are often operating close to capacity. As a result, a small disturbance to smooth traffic flow can cause a disproportionately large disruption over a wide area.
One approach to this is to use Enhanced Message Signs to control traffic over a wide area. In a complex network it is often difficult to determine which messages to set and on which signs in order to achieve optimal strategic control.
To address the need for guidance on how to effectively manage the traffic on the network, the Motorway On-Line Advisor software has been developed.
What are the main functions?
The primary function of the Motorway On-Line Advisor is to provide dynamic decision support to network managers, advising on the ‘best’ diversion strategy to adopt in the event of an incident, given the current and predicted traffic situation.
The second function of the software is display both live and predicted traffic data on a map of the network.
What are the benefits?
- It provides traffic managers with advice on the ‘best’ diversion strategy to deploy to reduce the negative effects of an incident on network performance.
- It provides traffic managers with a display of both current and predicted traffic conditions which can be invaluable when monitoring and managing the network. This reduces the need to rely on a detailed local knowledge of traffic managers which they can accumulate.
- Motorway On-Line Advisor constantly ‘learns’ and seeks to improve its own predictions and can be configured to provide specific and timely information to support the key decisions of traffic managers.
How does it work?
At Motorway On-Line Advisor’s core is the CONTRAM8 traffic assignment model. This includes a representation of the network (including details on the capacity and performance of each link) and an origin-destination matrix.
On the basis of information describing an incident (entered by an operator), the software selects appropriate diversion strategies from its library of approved plans and runs a series of ‘what-if’ simulations.
It then assesses the results of the simulation runs for each potential diversion plan and presents a recommendation to operators regarding which plan should be implemented.
