COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 12, 2007

MOTION NO. 5

MOTION: Councillor G. O'Connell

That the Manager brings forward a report on the Traffic Monitoring carried out by this Council to include purpose and role within the County and the greater Dublin Area, cost p/a, location of monitoring equipment, outcome, effect on traffic flow/management to date, and that a full discussion take place on this important service including exploring ways in which the public road and public transport users can become more aware of and involved in the system.

REPORT:

The Roads Department of South Dublin County Council operates a Traffic Management Centre (TMC), the purpose of which is to monitor all relevant aspects of South Dublin’s road network in order to create a more efficient use of the physical road network. Real-time information is collected on journey times, congestion and delays, obstructions, traffic signal faults and other incidents.

The Traffic Management Centre disseminates relevant information to national and local radio stations via AA Roadwatch and much of the commuter traffic information for the N4, N7 and N81 is sourced from South Dublin’s TMC. The Council closely liaises with Dublin City Counci'ls Traffic Control Centre and their radio broadcast on Dublin City FM. This information is also available for these media services and the general public on the Council's website providing continuous journey times for those travelling on the major roads across South Dublin.

The monitoring equipment comprises of 60 CCTV traffic cameras with access to a further 10 cameras in South Dublin via NRA and Dublin City Council. These cameras cover major junctions on the national and regional road network in the Council's administrative area. This facility is currently being extended to include the Fonthill Road and Outer Ring Road with future plans forthe upgraded N4 and M50.

Traffic signal outstation monitoring units (OMU’s) are installed at 70 traffic signal junction controllers. Through this facility these junctions are connected to the Traffic Management Centre with real time signal fault reporting and monitoring. This technology is now standard on new signal installations. OMU installation construction works have been minimised at existing junctions through the use of GSM (mobile) modems.

86 Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras are positioned at 19 locations on the major commuter routes in South Dublin andDublin City. These monitor in real-time, traffic flows across the network. Data returned includes journey times and delays. This can be analysised and compared to historical data to monitor effects from weather, incidents and road works. Specific detection of bus fleets has also enabled monitoring of bus journey times relative to general traffic. The journey time information is the basis for congestion information forwarded to the media.

Automatic Traffic Counters at 50 locations and at ANPR sites continuously monitor volume and speed of passing traffic permitting historical collection and analysis of traffic flow data and trends. Time restrictions for road works are based on traffic flows derived from the system of Automatic Traffic Counters.

A computer model has been created to simulate the effects of changes in the road network and growth in traffic. The model is verified from the historical data in the TMC system and specific manual counts. Comparisons of different innovative traffic management proposals for the M50 works have been tested by the model in order that the most efficient traffic management systems are utilised during the construction works.