Employing Traffic Lights as Road Side Units for Road Safety Information Broadcast

Employing Traffic Lights as Road Side Units for Road Safety Information Broadcast

Navin Kumar (University of Aveiro, Portugal), Luis Nero Alves (University of Aveiro, Portugal) and Rui L. Aguiar (University of Aveiro, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2015 |Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8473-7.ch007

Abstract

There is great concern over growing road accidents and associated fatalities. In order to reduce accidents, improve congestion and offer smooth flow of traffic, several measures, such as providing intelligence to transport, providing communication infrastructure along the road, and vehicular communication, are being undertaken. Traffic safety information broadcast from traffic lights using Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a new cost effective technology which assists drivers in taking necessary safety measures. This chapter presents the VLC broadcast system considering LED-based traffic lights. It discusses the integration of traffic light Roadside Units (RSUs) with upcoming Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) architecture. Some of the offered services using this technology in vehicular environment together with future directions and challenges are discussed. A prototype demonstrator of the designed VLC systems is also presented.
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Its And Vehicular Communication

With the growth of population in major urban areas and accelerated increase in number of cars, traffic is becoming generically chaotic. The problem of congestion, differently from what many might think, not only affects the day-to-day life of citizens but also has a great impact on business and economic activities. These issues therefore generate less income, affecting the sustainable growth of cities throughout the world.

Considering current problems of traffic management, control, and planning, especially fearing the consequences of their medium and long-term effects, both practitioners and the scientific communities have strived to tackle congestion in large urban networks. Research has been carried out basically towards the design and specification of future transport solutions featuring autonomy, putting the user in the center of all concerns and largely oriented to services. Such efforts were eventually to culminate in the emergence of the concept of ITS. Now the user is a central aspect of transportation systems, forcing architectures to become adaptable and accessible by different means so as to meet different requirements and a wide range of purposes.

Two of the main features of today’s intelligent transportation are as follows:

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