Traffic Monitoring Using Intelligent Video Sensors to Support the Urban Mobility Planning

The vehicular traffic is an extremely topical issue given its influence on the economic, social and environmental system. The mobility of people and goods is a significant factor of dynamism, but the congestive phenomena, caused by the greater vehicular flows, can be reflected in negative terms on the quality of citizens life. Smart management of transport networks is necessary and this, also and above all, means a traffic monitoring on the road. The systematic collection of traffic data is important for the safety/security related to the traffic phenomena, but also in support of urban mobility planning, for a more efficient management of infrastructures, to ensure appropriate traffic safety levels and the best possible levels of service. There are now monitoring tools, such as those based on video sensors, which can facilitate the task of transportation planners and managers and which can also provide opportunities as those relating to monitoring the security of citizens with respect to acts of vandalism or violence (security).In the first part, the paper proposes a synthetic framework on technologies used for traffic monitoring, with a description of the sensors and variables likely to be captured. Attention is then focused on the monitoring technologies using video sensors, bringing out the greater wealth of information that can derive from it and the positive effects for the purposes of traffic planning. Finally, a proposal for a methodological approach is put forward to configure a continuous monitoring system based on a distribution of permanent video sensors on the urban road network, useful for the effective management of mobility phenomena and for planning activities