Gauteng traffic solution?
Johannesburg residents should benefit from reduced road congestion as a legacy of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, with local companies Metacom and Sport and Traffic Technologies partnering to provide intelligent traffic control systems for the city.
The city is undertaking an initiative to upgrade traffic signals, with real-time information on traffic conditions and the status of important intersections being fed to a central control centre.
This will improve traffic management and, in future, enable the planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to get priority. Users will also have access to accurate, constantly updated information on arrival and travel times.
A similar communications and signage system is already in operation on the Ben Schoeman highway, giving travellers between Johannesburg and Pretoria accurate information on traffic conditions.
Metacom, a Cape Town-based ICT company specialising in cellular communication technologies, will provide the communications infrastructure and services to support the network of electronic signboards supplied by Sport and Traffic Technologies.
“The system relies on fast, reliable communication between the control centre and remote electronic signboards,” says Metacom’s chief technology officer Jako Winter.
“We’re supplying a comprehensive solution, using our own Virtual Private Network (VPN) built on the existing infrastructure of the cellular networks. Our communication devices all have dual SIM cards so they can instantly switch over if any of the networks goes down. It’s a tried and tested solution with thousands of devices in the field already.”
“Traditional communication solutions mean digging up roads to lay cables and are very expensive,” adds Metacom MD Rean van Niekerk.
“Using cellular technology means more cost-effective communication without compromising reliability. It also means than we can remotely monitor all our devices in the field and maintain them in the rare event that there’s a problem, without needing to send a technician to the site.”
SATT MD Frank Mac Beath says cellular communication is extremely effective both as a first line solution and as backup to other communication technologies.
“There is a huge problem with cable theft and it can take weeks to fix, so we always use cellular communication as a backup to fibre,” says Mac Beath.
“It’s easy to roll out, reliable, very low-maintenance and doesn’t suffer from the noise issues we are starting to see with Wi-Fi.”
Mac Beath says this reliability has been proven in other joint projects between Metacom and SATT, including signage for the Cape Town International Convention Centre and the Chapman’s Peak scenic drive as well as the Ben Schoeman highway.
“It’s a really solid, industrial product. I’ve had some units out in the field for six or seven years and none have failed yet, even though the traffic environment in particular is incredibly corrosive.”
Images of existing projects in operation are available at http://www.satt.co.za/gallery.html
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