Freeway Traffic Management System

COMPASS is the Freeway Traffic Management System (FTMS) run by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. Detectors are typically located as double-loop detectors embedded in the pavement every 500m along the province's major expressways. Incident Detection algorithms have also been widely used throughout the COMPASS-enabled area of Southern Ontario, Canada.

COMPASS-enabled highways include Highway 401 (one of the highest-volume highways in the world), as well as the Queen Elizabeth Way (or QEW), Highway 402, Highway 403, Highway 404, Highway 405, Highway 410, Highway 427 and Thorold Stone Road and Highway 417 (the Queensway) in Ottawa.

Algorithms

The primary algorithm used by the Ministry is known as the McMaster algorithm, designed by Professor Fred Hall of McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario.

Research on new algorithm developments and evaluations is performed at the ITS Centre and Testbed (ICAT), at the Civil Engineering department of the University of Toronto. The ICAT is equipped with direct fibre-optic links to the Ministry of Transportation, and received both traffic camera and loop detector data on a live basis. Visual data can be used to confirm the presence of incidents detected by the various algorithms.

COMPASS cameras

Sections with COMPASS cameras:

• QEW from Highway 427 to 50 Rd (Toronto to Stoney Creek)
• QEW from 7th Street to Mountain Road (St. Catharines to Niagara Falls)
• QEW from Thompson Rd to Bowen Rd (Fort Erie)
• Highway 400 from south of 401 to Langstaff Road (Toronto-Vaughan)
• Highway 401 from near Highway 410 to near Harwood Avenue (Mississauga-Ajax)
• Highway 401 from near Wellington Road South to near Old Victoria Road South in (London, Ontario)
• Highway 402 from Mandaumin Road to Front Street North (Sarnia)
• Highway 403 from Highway 401 to QEW (Mississauga-Oakville)
• Highway 403 from QEW to west of King Road (Burlington)
• Highway 404 from Highway 401/Don Valley Parkway to Steeles Ave (Toronto-Markham)
• Highway 405 from QEW to Queenston-Lewiston Bridge (St. Catharines-Niagara On The Lake)
• Highway 406 from near Third Avenue to QEW
• Highway 409 from Highway 401 to Martin Grove Road (Toronto)
• Highway 410 from Courtneypark Road to Highway 401 (Peel Region)
• Highway 417 from Ottawa Road 174 to 416/Richmond Road (Ottawa Region)
• Highway 427 from Gardiner Expressway/QEW to Finch Avenue (Toronto-York Region)
• Highway 58 from Pine Street to Thorold Stone Road (including Thorold Tunnel) (Thorold)

False alarms

A false alarm for incident detection is not only highly undesirable, but seriously damages the confidence in the detection system. Therefore, a near 100% alarm accuracy is needed. This does not mean that 100% traffic parameter accuracy is required from the traffic sensors; however, the logical commands that analyze the change in traffic parameters need to be selected carefully in order to minimize the probability of false alarms yet detect all major incidents as well as a high percentage of all other incidents. Most importantly, confirmation of incident and evaluation of incident type by manual inspection of a video camera screen is probably the most significant incident detection technique.

See also

• Electronic Monitoring and Advisory System - a similar type of system in Singapore
• Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling

References

Explanation of the logical functioning of COMPASS