Technology Profile |
A UTC for a modern-day
traffic control room
We genuinely
believe that this is
what the industry
has needed for some time now
Mike Guerin, head of sales and marketing, TRL Software
| Need to know to certain software which
Key advantages of TRL
Software’s new UTC
powered by SCOOT 7
076 Traffic Technology International March/April 2020
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
Authority partners,” says head
of sales and marketing, Mike
Guerin. “We had some really
good feedback. One local
authority referred to it as ‘game
changing’ and we genuinely
believe that this is what the
industry has needed for some
time now.”
Stand-out benefits
SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset
Optimisation Technique) was
originally launched by TRL
in 1980 and is now used to
coordinate traffic signals in 350
towns and cities around globe .
The latest version SCOOT 7
combines with a new UTC to
deliver a number of key aspects
that make it better than ever.
Being fully cloud-hosted
means that UTC powered by
SCOOT 7 is equipment agnostic
so not reliant on any specific
For traffic control operators,
no day is the same.
Employed to manage the
road network in their respective
cities, they have a massive
responsibility in ensuring
thousands of travellers get to
their destinations as swiftly and
safely as possible.
In reality, however, a traffic
control operator can only ever
be as effective as the systems
they’re working with. If the
tools they have are too slow, for
example, then the opportunity
to make split-second decisions
that can relieve pressures on the
road network can be missed.
“The job of a traffic control
operator is a safety critical one,
so we have considered where
existing tension points are and
sought to remove the friction
from the role,” explains TRL
chief technologist Chris Kettell.
“Looking at the different
types of systems and technology
in a control room, often certain
vendors of hardware lock you in
> Cloud-hosted, enabling
hardware agonistic
functionality and access
from any smart device
> Capable of hosting
multiple data streams
from multiple sources,
enabling smart city
functionality
> Software-as-a-Service
model means updates can
be pushed out remotely
> Intuitive, new easy-to-use
user interface
can become expensive
and restrictive. To avoid
compatibility issues, the
traffic manager then has to
rely on adapters and thirdparty
fixes which makes the
system less resilient or just
more cumbersome to use.”
Creating a buzz
An organization with a long
and prestigious history in
the world of urban traffic
controllers (UTC), TRL’s new
solution UTC powered by
SCOOT 7 is now ready to be
rolled out. Officially launched
in November 2019, the UTC is
already generating significant
industry attention.
“We demonstrated it at
Highways UK in a pre-launch
phase to 20 or 30 different
companies and UK Local
Above: Today’s smart
cities require the level of
connectivity that can be
delivered by an advanced
urban traffic controller
/www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com