Traff ic 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.

1.2 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.

This chapter contains the block diagram description, hardware and software constituents of
the Traffic congestion alert system using GSM project. Also explains the working and
implementation of this project with an example.

The Block Diagram includes transmitter and receiver as shown in Figure 2.1, which gives an
overall description of the project. Using GSM system the data is transferred from the
transmitter to the receiver. This data will be displayed on both the LCD screens placed at
transmitting and receiving side.

2.1 TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER

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Figure 2.1 Block Diagram

Sensors are kept on lanes for traffic monitoring. The output of these sensors is given to the
PIC16F877A microcontroller. The controller processes these outputs received and the
corresponding busy lane is displayed BUSY on the LCD screen connected to the
microcontroller. The BUSY message is wirelessly transmitted to the receiving end using the
GSM modem. It is processed in the PIC microcontroller.

2.2 HARDWARE DESCRIPTION

The hardware includes power supply, sensors, PIC microcontroller, LCD screen, MAX232,
RS232 and GSM modem.

2.2.1 POWER SUPPLY

Figure 2.2 shows ac to dc converter which is used for powering the microcontroller section
and relay driving sensor section. These two transformers are used to step down the 230V ac
main supply to 12V ac supply. Current handling capacity of the transformer is 500mA.

The 12V ac output is given at the power supply regulation stage. It consists of bridge rectifier
using diode D1 to D4 of 1N4007. The current handling capacity of this diode is 1A and
voltage handling capacity is 1000V. These 4 diodes are used to rectify the low voltage, i.e.
12V ac into 12V dc.

The output of this stage is given to the capacitor to remove electro-magnetic induction noises.
IC 7805 is used to regulate the unregulated dc power. Current carrying capacity of this IC is
1A.