Traffic congestion alert system using GSM : The increase in the number of vehicles has led to Traffic congestion. During the busy hours of a day, the traffic is at its peak and there are various problems related to traffic congestion. One such problem is fuel consumption. An average of 90 minutes is spent daily by a vehicle in congested traffic. People forget to switch off the engines which cause wastage of the non renewable resources such as petrol, diesel and LPG.  A car wastes 2.5 litres of fuel and two wheelers waste 0.75 litres of fuel in traffic jam per day. The cost of fuel wasted by city car is 7.5 cr and two-wheelers are 2.5 cr per day. The government subsidy on the wasted fuel is 1.5 cr per day. This incurs a heavy revenue loss to the country.

For the emergency conditions such as ambulance, fire engines to pass through, the congestion poses a hindrance. To recover for the lost time spent in congestion people tend to hurry and disperse the congestion, causing accidents. Indian roads witness one accident every minute and one death in road mishap every four and half minute, according to the latest report of the road, transport and highway ministry. Similarly the report estimates that these road mishaps left 5.2 lakh people injured.

The smoke released from the vehicles and the honking of the horns causes air and noise pollution. India is the world’s fourth largest carbon dioxide emitter with emission amounting to 1.34 billion tons per annum behind China, US and Russia. Even if India holds on to its promise of keeping its per capita emissions lower than that of developer economies, we will soon overtake Russia to become the third largest emitter.

To overcome these problems, a system has to be designed which can alert for congestion. “Traffic congestion alert system using GSM” does the needful and thus helps in reducing the traffic congestion.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

“Traffic Congestion Alert System Using GSM” project automatically alerts the traffic congestion condition. It can be implemented in the lanes and junctions which carry heavy traffic. Sensors are placed on roads to monitor the traffic condition. In each junction a transmitter and receiver will be present along with a LCD screen for display of message. When congestion is reported an interrupt is sent to the controller and the corresponding alert, LANE BUSY message is sent to the neighbouring junctions. The GSM modem (SIM 300) is used for transmitting and receiving messages on GSM network. The alert message is received on the surrounding junctions using GSM modem (SIM 300). This message will be displayed on the respective LCD screen. Thus the rider is alerted for the congestion condition beforehand. This facilitates the rider in taking an alternate congestion free route, avoiding being stuck in the traffic jam (congestion).  After the particular lane clears, the LANE CLEAR message is also displayed. This helps in diverting the traffic and hence reducing congestion.