England's National Traffic Control Centre: improving travel

The Highways Agency's National Traffic Control Centre (NTCC) became fully operational in November 2003. The services provided by the control centre are key to satisfying the objectives of providing better information to travellers and ensuring more reliable journeys. This paper describes the policy context within which the control centre has been delivered; the means by which it collects data on conditions on England's motorway and all-purpose trunk road network; how those data are analysed; and the means by which information is disseminated to the general public. These services are providing the catalyst for the development of traffic information delivery tools by the Agency and private sector information providers.