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Aldridge Traffic Controllers Pty Ltd
SYDNEY
COORDINATED
ADAPTIVE TRAFFIC
SYSTEM
Improves traffic safety outcomes
Maximises road network efficiency
Reduces congestion
Flexible and dynamic
Provides useful data
SCATS® THE BENCHMARK IN URBAN TRAFFIC CONTROL
The Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic Systems SCATS® takes a ‘helicopter’ view of a city traffic
(SCATS®) is a computer based area wide traffic network managing the entire traffic network, consistently
management system. It is a complete system that includes looking at the overall traffic conditions and not just
hardware, software, and a unique control philosophy. single intersections.
The system operates in real-time, adjusting signal Rather than changing individual intersections in
timing, splits, cycle lengths and offsets in response to isolation, SCATS® manages groups of intersections
variations in traffic demand and system capacity as they called ‘subsystems’. Each subsystem consists of a
occur. SCATS® measures traffic volumes and flows grouping of intersections relatively close to each other
at intersections mainly using inductive loop detectors and will consist just one ‘critical’ intersection.
buried in the road surface. This data is then used to SCATS® aims to divide the traffic on major roads into
automatically adapt operation of the traffic signals on ‘platoons’ (groups of vehicles), and to allow sufficient
an area-wide basis. time for each platoon of vehicles to gain maximum
SCATS® can run without any manual intervention, utilisation of the available green time relative to the need
it is self-calibrating and requires no ongoing traffic to manage competing needs of cross traffic flows.
surveys and manual plan generation, therefore reducing SCATS® urban traffic management software is
operational costs. owned, developed and used by the New South Wales
Government, Australia.
Benefits
• Reduced costs: SCATS® maximises road • Highly configurable: SCATS® features a wide
network use with real-time adaptive control. Its self- range of configuration parameters. It is an ‘Engineers
calibration system minimises manual intervention, toolbox’ with the power to allow engineers to
which can reduce your traffic management reconfigure the system to meet changing traffic needs.
operational costs. SCATS® requires no ongoing • Flexible integration: SCATS® is designed
traffic surveys and site visits to update traffic plans. to be modular and can be integrated with a wide
• Proven performance: SCATS® has proven itself variety of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).
in cities and towns across the globe, providing real • Ongoing software improvements: Software
and measurable reductions in road travel times and improvements are made regularly to meet the
delays under various road network, traffic and driving needs of customers, the demands of increasing
conditions. Read more about Proven performance. traffic and the evolution of traffic systems.
• A global traffic solution: SCATS® On average SCATS®:
has been in use for over 40 years and is
• Reduces delays by 20%
sold in 27 countries around the world.
• Reduces stops by 20%
• Reduced fuel consumption by 212%
• Reduces emissions by 7%
Key Features Manual Overrides
• SCATS® supports manual overrides including trims,
Central Management locals and dwells. It also has support for green light
• The SCATS® Central Manager provides a global runs and incident response plans. Plan changes can be
view of the system operation. It can manage up to 64 done manually or scheduled. The scheduler includes
SCATS® regions, each of which can control up to 250 public holiday support.
traffic signal sites. Monitoring
• The SCATS® database contains common information • SCATS® provides extensive facilities for monitoring
that can be used by any SCATS® application and can traffic, traffic signal operation, communications, traffic
be viewed by any SCATS® workstation. This includes signal hardware and alarms. It also has extensive error
graphics, data, site details, various traffic management detection and reporting.
plans, schedules, action lists and alarms. Data Collection
Communications • SCATS® has automated collection of operational
• SCATS® regions can connect to traffic signal sites via and performance data. Traffic counts are collected on
permanently connected series links (point-to-point or a lan-by-lane basis wherever appropriate detectors
multi-drop), dial-up connections (dial-in or dial-out) are installed. Any collected data can be sent to the
or TCP/IP. SCATS® Central Manager for backup.
• Each regional allows up to 30 simultaneous workstation Intelligent Transport System Support (ITS)
connections and each workstation can monitor up to 10 SCATS® has an ITS interface that can support up
sites at a time. to 100 connections for the exchange of data with
Traffic Management third party ITS applications. This can be used for:
• Each traffic signal can be run in isolation or can be • Data collection and analysis
coordinated with other sites using one of several
• Traffic control
operating models, including fixed-time and adaptive
modes. • Public transport priority
• The adaptive mode allows the cycle times, phase splits • Dynamically updated map-based displays
and offsets to be determined dynamically to suit prevailing • Traffic Modelling and simulation.
traffic conditions. Adaptive operation is self-calibrating.
System Configuration Access
• Master Link: Adaptive Traffic Control • Intersection and regional graphics can be displayed
• Fixed Time: Uses preset plans to provide time of day • Site and regional data all displayed on one screen
traffic plans • Setting up priority routes for emergency and VIP vehicles
• Flexilink: SCATS® fallback system • Alarm management
• Dial Up: Sites not on SCATS® can be dialled up • Faulty lamps status at each site in the network
• Isolated: Sites can be monitored buy • Faulty detectors are readily identified and alarms
SCATS® with no coordination displayed
• 250 intersections managed by each regional computer • Time distance diagrams can be displayed, in real time
• 64 regional computers in one system • View site data, splits, offsets, cycle length
• 100 users can connect to a SCATS® system at the • View link plans, system plans, dwells, trims and DS
same time
• Interrogate local controller data and view fault log
• SCATS® is scalable and can be easily expanded.
SCATS® THE BENCHMARK IN URBAN TRAFFIC CONTROL
Functionality
• Incident Manager: Operator introduction of preset • Alarm Analyser: Report on a specific fault
plans for managing the additional traffic generated over an extended period. It produces a
by special event finishes such as sporting events detailed tabulated summary that includes
alarms by duration, site and time.
• Route Pre-emption: Provides a ‘green wave’
for emergency and VIP vehicles. Can be • Communications Monitor: Used to evaluate the
operator installed to pre-planned routes or communications between intersection and their
in conjunction with emergency services SCATS® regions. A detailed summary is produced
that includes communications and adaptive uptime.
• Time Distance Displays: SCATS® provides time
distance information graphically in real time • History Reader: Allows a user to view
the phase sequence and phase time at
• Unusual Congestion Monitor: A control room
any intersection after the event.
application with reviews current congestion levels,
compares these levels with a historical database and • Event Generators: Allows alarms to be
provides alarm indicators to control room staff that raised from non-SCTATS® devices.
congestion is ‘unusual’ and should be reviewed. • Fallback systems: In the event of a power,
• SMS Server: This application allows operators to communications or regional computer failure
set up a system of SMS alerts for the immediate SCATS® has inbuilt historical data that is
reporting of alarms of faults to maintenance staff automatically activated to provide coordination.
• Traffic Reporter: For detection data at any • Dial On Dial Out (DIDO) Feature: Used to
site either live or historical. The program monitor remove sites. For major alarms the
can provide traffic volume counts for every intersection will immediately communicate with
lane at each intersection in the system. the SCATS® central manager requesting on site
support. Sites can be remotely monitored.
• Event Reporter: For recording all events
that occur in the system including staff • Access Security: SCATS® has a key level
log in data, dwells, trims etc. system which allows for authorised users to
access the system at user defined levels.
• SCATS® Alerts: Provides alarms for users, visually
and audibly when a nominated event is detected. • ITS Port Activation: The ITS port allows
operational data to be exchanged with
other third party applications.
www.scats.com.au
www.atsc4.com.au
Aldridge Traffic Controllers Pty Ltd
Telephone: +61 2 8846 5599
Facsimile: +61 2 8846 5590
E-mail: info@atsc4.com.au
Unit N,10-16 South Street,
Rydalmere NSW 2116 Australia
PO Box 324 Ermington NSW 2115
ABN 44 098 257 035
