Urban Traffic Management and Control

The Urban Traffic Management Control or UTMC programme is the main initiative of the UK Department for Transport (DfT) for the development of a more open approach to Intelligent Transport Systems or ITS in urban areas.

UTMC systems are designed to allow the different applications used within modern traffic management systems to communicate and share information with each other. Thereby a more robust and intelligent system can be used to meet current and future management requirements.

Background and history

The UTMC was Launched in 1997; during the first three years, a number of research projects were undertaken to establish and validate an approach based on modular systems and open standards. These have contributed to the UTMC Technical Specifications, which define UTMC standards.

* In January 2001, the programme embarked on a demonstrator phase to consolidate the results of the earlier research. Full scale demonstrator projects taking a pragmatic UTMC approach were run in Preston, Reading, Stratford-upon-Avon and York.

* Early in 2003, the UTMC Development Group or UDG of stakeholders, consisting of local authorities and suppliers was set up, with the support of the DfT, to oversee the future development of UTMC.

* To assist local authorities in gaining the most from ITS and to achieve their transport objectives, the DfT initiated the six-year, £6M UTMC programme in 1997. The first half of the UTMC programme (1997-2000) concentrated on specific applied research tasks, on both technical and operational issues.

UTMC has helped local authorities achieve their goals by adopting an appropriate, but not over constraining, set of standards to allow users, suppliers and integrators of UTMC systems to plan and supply systems cost-effectively in an open market.

UTMC Activities

pecifications and Standards

The UTMC Specifications and Standards Group (S&SG) is responsible for ensuring that the UTMC technical framework continues to meet local authorities needs, currently and in the future. The S&SG oversees the maintenance and upkeep of the UTMC Technical Specifications. Its members are drawn from both local authorities and the supplier community, but it is always led by local authorities.

The S&SG works closely with the full range of UTMC suppliers to ensure its requirements are technically achievable. It operates a transparent consultation regime on all technical changes. From time to time it may commission and fund technical research and standards development activities, though it operates principally through coordinating the input freely provided by suppliers and users.

Outreach and marketing

As well as undertaking technical work to develop national specifications, there are a number of activities that help "market" the initiative to the traffic management community.

There is an annual conference, papers and articles are published in key industry journals and regular workshops are held focusing on key (technical or operational) themes.

In 2006, the UTMC ran a number of special sessions at the ITS World Conference held in London, as well as running a dedicated stand.

The UTMC Products Register

The UTMC Products Directory [http://www.utmc.uk.com/technical/pdf/ts004.003apr07.pdf] is a catalogue of UTMC Compliant Products which Local Authorities may use in finding Products for their Traffic Management Systems. The Products Register outlines the process for submitting a Product to the Register and subsequently to the Directory.

The UTMC Objects Registry

The Objects Registry TS004 [http://www.utmc.uk.com/technical/pdf/ts004.003apr07.pdf] provides format standards for shared data (ie data communicated between applications of a UTMC system, or between a UTMC system and an external system) through:

*holding definitions of current UTMC Objects, and making them available to users;
*receiving submissions for potential new UTMC Objects, and coordinating consultation as necessary;
*facilitating contact between Object developers;
*advising on changes needed to potential new UTMC Objects;
*registering new UTMC Objects.

The current issue as of November 2007 is TS004.003:2007. A revision is anticipated in Spring 2008.

Joint Chairs’ Group (JCG)

The JCG brings together the UDG with three other key ITS community organisations, namely the Travel Information Highway, the Real Time Information Group and Intelligent Transport Systems United Kingdom. Meeting at chair’s level, the JCG aims to ensure that the strategic direction of the four groups is aligned.

The JCG meets approximately quarterly. It is a consultative rather than an executive forum: it is up to individual chairs and the groups they lead to take any action as a result of JCG discussions.

ee also

*Department of Transport
*Intelligent Transport Systems
*Intermodal Journey Planner

References

All of the following documents are maintained and published for open use on the UTMC website.

* UTMC Framework Technical Specification The Framework Technical Specification TS003 [http://www.utmc.uk.com/technical/pdf/ts003.pdf] takes into account feedback from the consultation process and ongoing international initiatives in this field. It presents the core technical standards recommended for use by UK Traffic Managers in their systems.

The current issue as of November 2007 is TS003:2005.

External links

*http://www.utmc.uk.com UTMC website
*http://www.utmc.gov.uk/utmc29/utmc29.htm UTMC Demonstrators
*http://www.rtig.org.uk RTIG website
*http://www.its-uk.org.uk ITS-UK
*http://www.tih.org.uk TIH Wiki
*http://www.dft.gov.uk UK Department for Transport
*http://www.utmc.info UTMC Software Development Kit