Review of Sensor technologies and data requirements for ITS by Lawrence A. Klein

Abstract

This is an instructive reference book that draws together in one place the technical details of nonintrusive traffic sensors, their deployment, and the fusion of their data into useful information within the traffic control center. One can quickly locate a specific topic by using the book’s index and table of contents and then be presented with a well written, technically robust treatise on the topic. The stated goal of the book is to allow practitioners, students, and managers develop an understanding of nonintrusive, surface-mounted, and subsurface sensor technologies, including their operation, utilization, calibration, and installation. This goal is attained, in no small part, by the liberal use of figures, drawings, and photographs. This book has an important place on the reference shelf of all practitioners dealing with traffic data collection and its use. Most engineers, including this reviewer, enter the transportation field through classic civil engineering educations. Some come from industrial and systems engineering programs. Traditionally, the technology developed slowly and was simply an extension of one’s undergraduate college course work. However, in recent years, technology developments in traffic sensors have rapidly emerged from scientific fields far removed from the traditional transportation engineering disciplines. While other technical disciplines develop the tools, it is still the civil and systems engineers who typically apply them in the field and manage the transportation systems. This has increased our need for state-ofthe-art reference manuals to aid in our understanding of the new technologies and how to evaluate, select, and deploy them. Dr. Klein is well qualified by training and experience to address his subject. An electrical engineer, he came to the transportation field after many years of work on sensors in the aerospace and defense communities. He was one of the primary authors and contributors to the Federal Highway Administration’s ~FHWA! Intelligent Vehicle Highway System ~IVHS! detection technology program, which resulted in a series of task reports under the general title Report for Detection Technology for IVHS ~FHWA DTFH61-91-C-0076, Washington, D.C., US DOT, FHWA, 1992– 1995!. This book grew out of that effort and provides a comprehensive synthesis on the various emerging detection technologies. The book is organized into 9 chapters and 12 appendices. The first chapter is small but makes the case for optimizing the existing transportation network through information gathering and dissemination. It concludes by carving out the role that sensors and Traffic Management Centers ~TMCs! play in this scheme. Chapter 2 provides an excellent summary of the characterization of traffic flow, in a compact 50 pages. Standing alone, this chapter will be useful as a primer or refresher for university students, TMC operators, or anyone in the field.