CAN COMPUTER-DIRECTED POLICE CUT ACCIDENTS?

Traffic police in West Sussex will soon be deployed by computer instruction from a system called project 2001 whereby data from road sensors will be passed to miniprocessors modelling traffic parameters and police action. Research at the transport and Road Research Laboratory has shown that 2000 conflicts occur for each accident, and although the conflicts cannot be detected electronically they are related to measurable parameters such as vehicle lengths, gaps, speeds and flows. It has been shown that police presence modifies drivers speed, close following of the vehicle in front and gap acceptance. Radar speed checks at regular intervals at the same place were also shown to keep speed down. It is hoped that by continous monitoring of traffic conditions it will be possible to direct police action more effectively thus reducing the number of conflicts cutting accidents by some five per cent. /TRRL/

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/02624079
• Corporate Authors:

  IPC Magazines

  66-69 Great Queens Street
  London WC2E 5DD,   England 
• Publication Date: 1975-11-27

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 529
• Serial:
  • NEW SCIENTIST
  • Volume: 68
  • Issue Number: 977
  • Publisher: REED BUSINESS INFORMATION LTD
  • ISSN: 0262-4079

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Car following; Crimes; Decision making; Digital computers; Drivers; Gap acceptance; Information processing; Length; Motor vehicles; Police; Prevention; Radar; Safety; Sensors; Speed; Traffic conflicts; Traffic flow; Traffic speed; Vehicle spacing; Vehicles
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• Old TRIS Terms: Radar applications
• ITRD Terms: 1057: Air transport network; 2248: Decision process; 8673: Digital computer; 1772: Driver; 6488: Length; 1516: Offence; 1522: Police; 6738: Radar; 6120: Sensor; 5408: Speed; 671: Traffic flow; 8119: United Kingdom; 694: Vehicle spacing
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; Vehicles and Equipment; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00134242
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 4 1976 12:00AM