Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:16, 10 January 2014

Revision as of 17:32, 23 June 2014

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{{other uses of|MIDAS}}

'''[[Motorway]] Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling''', usually abbreviated to '''MIDAS''', is a distributed network of [[traffic]] [[sensor]]s, mainly inductive loops, (trialling at the moment radar technology by wavetronixWavetronix) which are designed to alert the local RCC (Regional Control Centre) to traffic flow and average speeds and in ATM (Active Traffic Management) zones, set [[variable message sign]]s, advisory speed limits along with mandatory speed limits in ATM sections with little human intervention. Companies such as RAC, TomTom and Google use this traffic flow data via halogens reporting systems.

It is installed on all sections of the United Kingdom's 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> Additionally, the system is installed on parts of the non-motorway trunk road network including the [[A14 road|A14]].<ref name="A14">{{cite_web|url=http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/22585.aspx|title=A14 Corridor Traffic Management Scheme |publisher=Highways Agency |accessdate =2011-07-18}}</ref>