WebCOMIS - Additional Legend Information

Legend - More Information

This page provides more information on the colours and symbols used on the WebCOMIS map. It is divided into 6 sections, click on a link below to view a section.

Road Colours

Car Parks

Miscellaneous and Landmarks

Roadside Noise Levels

Carbon Monoxide Emission Levels

Nitrogen Dioxide Emission Levels

1. Road Colours

The colours of roads on the local map are based on definitions of congestion as defined by research by the Instrumented City Facility at the University of Leeds. The calculation of congestion involves the monitoring the flow of traffic using on-street detector systems. These detectors form part of Leicester's SCOOT urban traffic control system.

Colour	Definition	Description
	Quiet	The road is very quiet, with little or no traffic activity
	Normal	The road has an appreciable volume of freely moving traffic. Small queues may form at junctions or pedestrian crossings.
	Busy	The road is full of traffic. Traffic may be slow moving or continually stopping and starting. Long queues form at junctions or pedestrian crossings.
	Congested	The road is congested. Slow moving or stationary traffic completely fills the road. Traffic on this road may start to affect other nearby roads.
	No Information Available	No information is avalable for the traffic on the road, either: because of a faulty detector, or; because the road is ouside the area of detector coverage.

2. Car Parking

WebCOMIS uses information derived from Leicester's VMS (Variable Message Sign) system. The actual calculation of whether a car park is almost full or not takes into account whether the number of cars in a particular car park is increasing or decreasing. This allows the system to account for car parks that will be full in the near future.

Colour	Definition	Description
	Spaces	The car park is approximately 0% - 85% full.
	Almost Full	The car park is approximately 85% - 95% full.
	Full or Closed	The car park is either: over 95% full, or; is likely to be over 95% full within 15 minutes, or; is closed.
	No Information Available	No information is available for the car park.

By clicking on a car park icon in the local map a window will be brought up showing:

the number of spaces left in the car park;
the opening hours of the car park;
the time at which this information was last updated;
a button for more information.

Clicking on the more information button will bring up a map showing the location of the car park, contact numbers for the operator of the car park and the tarrifs for using the car park.

The filter buttons on the left hand side of the main screen can be used to switch the display of car parks off or on.

3. Miscellaneous and Landmarks

Symbol	Definition	Description
	CCTV Camera	The location of an active traffic camera. Click on the symbol in the local map to see a current view from that camera. Note that the direction of view of the camera is controlled by ATC* (Area Traffic Control) or police operators.*
	Tourist Information	The location of Tourist Information Centers in Leicester. Click on the symbol in the local map to link to information on sites, events and activities in Leicester.
	Bus Station	The location of major bus and coach stations in Leicester. Click on the symbol in the local map to link to bus operators or sites with route and timetable information.
	Rail Station	The location of railway stations in Leicester. Click on the symbol in the local map to link to the railtrack timetable.
	Hospital	The location of hospitals in Leicester. Note that hospital links are not enabled at the present time

The display of the above symbols can be switched off or on on the local map by using the filter buttons on left hand control panel of the main screen.

More map icons will be available soon!

4. Roadside Noise Levels

WebCOMIS currently uses a modified version of the UK standard noise prediction method "Calculation of Road Traffic Noise" (¹ DoT, 1988) to produce estimates of noise emission levels in terms of L_{A10, 5-min} levels (Noise level exceeded for 10% of the time) at a distance of 10m from the centreline of the road. Note that the overall noise level experienced at a given point would rely on noise contributions from BOTH sides of the road (and any adjacent roads or other noise sources.

Colour	Definition	Description
	Very Quiet	L_A10 Noise level below 50 dB(A).
	Quiet	L_A10 Noise level between 50 dB(A) and 60 dB(A).
	Normal	L_A10 Noise level between 60 dB(A) and 70 dB(A).
	Noisy	L_A10 Noise level of greater than 70 dB(A).
	No Information Available	No information is avalable for emissions on the road, either: because of a lack of traffic data, or; because the road is ouside the area of detector coverage.

5. Carbon Monoxide Emissions

WebCOMIS uses the ETEM algorithm (²Jalihal, 2000) to calculate Carbon Monoxide emissions.

Colour	Definition	Description
	Low	Emission between 0 and 1.0 g/km/s.
	Medium	Emission between 1.0 and 2.0 g/km/s.
	High	Emission between 2.0 and 3.0 g/km/s.
	Very High	Emission of greater than 3.0 g/km/s.
	No Information Available	No information is avalable for emissions on the road, either: because of a lack of traffic data, or; because the road is ouside the area of detector coverage.

6. Nitrogen Dioxide Emissions

WebCOMIS uses the ETEM algorithm (²Jalihal, 2000) to calculate Nitrogen Dioxide emissions.

Colour	Definition	Description
	Low	Emission between 0 and 0.3 g/km/s.
	Medium	Emission between 0.3 and 0.6 g/km/s.
	High	Emission between 0.6 and 0.9 g/km/s.
	Very High	Emission of greater than 0.9 g/km/s.
	No Information Available	No information is avalable for emissions on the road, either: because of a lack of traffic data, or; because the road is ouside the area of detector coverage.

References

¹ DoT (1988), "Calculation of Road Traffic Noise", Department of Transport, Welsh Office, HMSO.

² Jalihal (2000), "Pollution Estimation from SCOOT Data", Ph.D Thesis, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds.

WebCOMIS Legend Information V1.1, Last updated: 9th November 2000 15:16GMT