Freeway Traffic Management System
Open-knowledge reference entry
COMPASS, also referred to as Freeway Traffic Management System, is a system run by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) to monitor and manage the flow of traffic (mostly on the 400-series highways) in Ontario.
COMPASS uses pairs of in-road sensors to detect the speed and density of traffic flow. This data is fed to a central computer at the MTO Downsview office and analyzed by operators, who also view the feeds of traffic cameras placed along the highways. Changeable Message Signs (CMS) then display messages to motorists on the highways, advising them of upcoming collisions, closures, detours and traffic flow.
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. Incident Detection algorithms have also been widely used throughout the COMPASS-enabled area.
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
Images from most COMPASS cameras are available online via MTO website.
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This entry incorporates text from “Freeway Traffic Management System” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.