Highways England has deployed an intelligent transport system that uses portable message signs to display real-time journey information from the National Traffic Operations Centre (NTOC).
Mobile Visual Information Systems’s DATEX allows an average of 85,000 drivers daily on a 34km section of the A14 Cambridge-to-Huntingdon upgrade scheme to navigate roadworks. The scheme includes a new bypass, junction improvements, highway widening and creation of access roads.
The A14 Integrated Delivery Team, on behalf of Highways England, contracted MVIS to deploy its largest DATEX just-in-time solution that incorporates 26 variable message signs.
The Bartco UK VMS-C signs display journey times from their locations to the end of the affected stretch of road. They also inform drivers of predicted journey duration and, if possible, enable the selection of alternative routes.
Journey times shown are calculated using DATEX II actual time journey time data collected from in-vehicle sensors and relayed by NTOC. These times are renewed every five minutes. Messages displayed replicate those shown on Highways England’s fixed signs, promoting better continuity and ease of motorist interpretation than has previously been available when information on temporary VMS has not been generated by NTOC.
MVIS is based in Derbyshire, England, and its products and solutions are created by Bartco UK.