Case Study
Athens, Greece
In Athens, Greece, the Ministry of Public Works undertook a massive reconstruction of the roadway infrastructure and traffic management systems to accommodate the 2004 Olympic Games and replace aging infrastructure. This state-of-the-art system, in cooperation with the existing traffic signalization system aims to improve the traffic circulation and to solve the traffic congestions during the Olympics as well as after them, when the city will return to normal life.
This project is named: “Modernization of the Traffic Signalization and Traffic Management System in Attica”. Prime contractors of the project are the companies ACTOR and Siemens.
Within this project, two Control Centers will be constructed: The Traffic Management Center and the Room of Investigation and Control of the Traffic Circulation. This project includes the update of the existing traffic signalization system, by replacing traffic controllers with new, as well as by replacing the Traffic Management computers.
The following systems will be installed:
- 210 CCTV dome cameras with and PTZ
- 24 Variable Message Signs
- 700 Inground loop detectors
- 75 Autoscope video detection systems
The central software of the traffic management system is Siemens’ SITRAFFIC CONCERT software. All the data coming from the loops and the video detection systems will be transmitted to the CONCERT system. CONCERT will analyze and process the data and will display the traffic conditions via a graphical user interface. When an incident is detected, the new traffic management system will propose solutions, such as post a message on the Variable Message Signs, change the signalization programs at junctions, e-mail or fax warnings to the appropriate authorities such as police department, fire station, ambulance, etc. Then operators will use CCTV cameras to verify the incident.
Exclusively represented by ATS Traffic Systems in Greece , the Autoscope video detection system was selected as the best for this state-of-the-art project. The 75 Autoscope systems are now installed along major highways throughout the entire Athens area as well as in signalized junctions. Autoscope systems extensive capabilities, accuracy, and versatility of different detection types, such as speeds, vehicle counts, vehicle classification, stopped vehicle detection, wrong way vehicles, incident detection, as well as more classic traffic data such as occupancy, gap between vehicles, queue detection etc. are a great asset to the project. The Autoscope systems that are used at junctions were not installed to simply replace the “traditional” loops, but to perform strategic detection.
The 75 AIS cameras are installed on metal poles, 14 meters high. The image from these cameras are transmitted through a fiber optic network to one of the two newly constructed control centers. In the control center 75 Autoscope Solo Pro NC are installed, to process the images from the 75 AIS cameras. All data from the Autoscope systems are transferred to the Autoscope Server PC and then is sent to the main Siemens’ CONCERT server. The interface between the two servers is an XML software that was developed by ATS Traffic Systems.
