Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:04, 2 October 2009

Revision as of 16:17, 28 May 2011

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:{{otherusesof|MIDAS}}

'''Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling''', usually abbreviated to '''MIDAS''', is a distributed network of [[traffic]] [[sensor]]s, mainly inductive loops, which are designed to set [[variable message sign|variable message signs]]s and advisory speed limits with little human intervention. On the M25 and [[M42 motorway]]s, the MIDAS helps set mandatory variable speed limit signs as part of the ''controlled motorway scheme''.

It is installed on several sections of the United Kingdom's busiest motorways, such as the congested western stretch of the [[M25 motorway]] and much of the [[M60 motorway]] around [[Manchester]], the Birmingham box (M6, M5 and M42) and the system has successfully reduced accidents.<ref name="hacost">{{cite_web|url=http://www.ha-research.co.uk/projects/index.php?id=437|title=Cost effectiveness of MIDAS|publisher=Highways Agency |accessdate =2007-01-07}}</ref>