Traffic control is the effort to manage movement of people and goods from one location to another, ideally in a way that maximizes safety and minimizes costs. This activity involves many different aspects of public and private transport, which are broadly categorized as road, rail, air, or marine. Traffic, or the desire to move from point A to point B, is generally what gives rise to the need for traffic control. Air traffic control, for example, is a critical part of the operation of commercial airlines and must take into account weather conditions at a destination airport.
The basic goal of all traffic control https://www.trafconservices.com/top-traffic-control-device-tips is to maintain safe operations of vehicles on a guideway, or pathway. This can be a physical structure, such as a road or railroad track, or a virtual path that is agreed upon and designated by a transport system e.g., a radio communication system that enables aircraft to communicate with air traffic control centers. The most critical aspect of traffic control is maintaining safety; the secondary objective is efficiency of movement. These two objectives frequently conflict, as they are based on different assumptions about transportation needs and costs.
A traffic control device is any mechanism used to direct vehicle movements or to inform drivers of hazardous conditions. These devices may be manual, such as stop signs or lighted traffic signals; they can also be automatic, such as radar systems that monitor speed and distance to detect vehicles or electronic signal controls that respond to sensor input. Sensors can be embedded in the road surface or in traffic light heads, or they may be mounted on overhead poles or wires. In some cases, the detectors are in vehicles themselves, such as automobiles, trucks, or trains, which transmit data to a central computer system directly.
In addition to warning motorists of dangers, traffic control systems can be designed to encourage modal shifts. For example, special lanes can be dedicated to high-occupancy passenger vehicles, such as buses or car pools. These lanes allow them to operate at higher speeds than single-passenger cars and bypass congestion on highways or busy intersections.
The design of traffic control must take into account the wide variety of vehicles that use transportation networks, from pedestrians and bicyclists to 80,000-pound trucks that can travel at speeds up to 100 miles per hour. The placement of warning signs, for instance, must take into account a truck’s longer stopping distance than that of an automobile.
Traffic control is a field that is highly political, since schemes that benefit one group often impose cost and inconvenience on others. Planners must be able to evaluate schemes objectively and explain their impacts to the public in clear and understandable terms. They must also be able to recognize when a scheme will cause more harm than good and withdraw support for it. This is particularly important in urban areas, where a lack of political support can stifle innovation and derail changes that might improve the quality of life for residents.