INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM USING RFID TO
REDUCE CONGESTION, AMBULANCE PRIORITY AND
STOLEN VEHICLE TRACKING
Khalid Basir Ahmed, Deepak Kumar
Amity Institute of Information Technology, Amity University, Noida, India
khalidahmed8@gmail.com, deepakgupta_du@rediffmail.com
Abstract-A recent study by IIM revealed that India losses 90,000
crore a year due to traffic congestion, traffic congestion and
unpredictable delays in road travel are the problems that are
factored in daily lives, use of technology will help in minimizing the
congestion, in most of the cities in India, congestion of roads due to
vehicular traffic has become a chronic problem with practically no
solution coming from Urban Planners or Municipal Corporations
and other Government bodies. A slow-moving traffic adds up to cost
of travel due to reduction in productivity, late delivery of goods and
material adds up to cost of delay, in case of emergency the slow-
moving traffic is fatal. Imagine a critically wounded patient in an
ambulance stuck in slow moving traffic; such person can die due to
delay in reaching hospital. the Root Cause of traffic congestion in
the cities and suggested some solutions. Some solutions are
implementable with the help of technology, building new
infrastructure and some solutions must be driven by Government
(Local/State Level/Central). In this paper we are going to propose
an intelligent base traffic control system using Wireless networks
and wireless sensors, use of GSM transmit data back and forth from
the base station. Use of IOT based systems and RFID (radio
frequency identification) technology tags installed on the vehicle
and RFID tag reader will be installed on each traffic intersection to
identify the flow of vehicle and reroute the traffic based on the data
received by the RFID reader, RFID tags installed in ambulance will
be tagged a priority in all situation.
Keywords: RFID, Intelligent Transportation Systems, traffic
congestion. RFID tag. Wireless Network, Wireless Sensors.
I. INTRODUCTION
With the increasing growth in number of vehicle on the road,
the roads are getting congested and becoming increasingly
crowded, complicated and chaotic. Countries around the world
are constantly trying to solve this problem by building
highways to accommodate the demand but building more
roads dose not really solves the problem of traffic congestion.
Traffic congestion works very unexpectedly, not the way any
individual would think it does, 1000 cars on the road will slow
down the traffic then 200 car, building more roads mean more
cars. It is always proportionate, we need to divert the cars on
the road, use efficient signaling system to reroute the traffic on
the road to achieve that RFID tags can be installed on the
vehicle and RFID reader also know n as ramp meter are
installed at every intersection of the roads to reroute traffic and
manage the inflow and outflow of traffic, RFID tags installed
on ambulance will be given highest priority. When a
ambulance is approaching the intersection the RFID reader
relay the message to the other station to reroute the ongoing
traffic, the fixed timing traffic system which is currently in
place is not satisfactory, in this paper we going to implement
sensor based traffic control system with very less investment
and utilizing the current system in place.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Studies states that drivers spent 24.5 million hours every year
sitting in traffic, government spent 2.8 billion to build more
highways and widen the existing one, Still the problem of
traffic congestion is not solved or reduced to existential level,
rather the alarming rate of traffic congestion is increasing day
by day. The paper titled “Automatic Vehicle Identification
System based on RFID” [3], paper gives an insight of data
collection and unique way of tracking vehicle using RFID
technology, the paper is based on AVI system. Further using
the explicit implication of RFID to track vehicle to reduce
traffic congestion. The paper titled “Design of Dynamic
Traffic Signal Control System” [4], this paper also states that
there are certain time when there is no traffic and still users on
the junction on the road has to wait because of the dynamic
traffic control system in place, this paper proposed use of
mobile and web based application to users on the road to alert
user about the traffic conditions on the road. What we are
proposing is using RFID tags and RFID Reader on every
junction to detect the movement of traffic and accordingly
reroute them, Conventional traffic signal can be upgraded to
the proposed model and with very little investment, using
smart devices IOT based sensors and Intelligent transport
system within the already available infrastructure we can
reduce travel time and improve congestion by just being smart
about it.
III. PROPOSED METHOD
We propose intelligence management of traffic control system
to reduce the negative effect of congestion using RFID, IR
transmitter and GSM wireless technology.
 IR transmitters will be placed on both sides of the
road. These Transmitters will count the number of
RFID tags installed in the vehicle and determine the
density. Based on the density, it will set the green
light duration.
  Ambulance will be equipped with flagged IR tag Infrared emitter (IR Emitter) will be installed in ambulances.
which will be detected by IR transmitters placed near As soon as an ambulance passes through the IR transmitter,
the junction. which will be implemented on both sides of the road near a
 The third part is responsible for stolen vehicle junction, it will detected the infrared signal transmitted form
detection. the ambulance and it will transmit a signal to the receiver
The system as in process is incapable of handling traffic, the which is at the traffic junction .As soon as the receiver receives
traffic signals are set to auto timer more of around 40 seconds the transmitted signal it will inform the nearby base station to
to a minute, which is not effective because sometimes at an stop all the incoming traffic and raise an alarm at the junction
intersection a road might be empty and still traffic on the other indicating that an ambulance is approaching.
roads of the intersection must wait. Real time implementation
of signaling system will solve this problem and reduce wait
time Here, IR transmitters will be placed on both sides of the
road near a junction. These Transmitters will count the number
of RFID tags installed in the vehicles and determine the
density. Based on the density, it will set the green light
duration. In addition, IR emitter will be installed in
ambulances. As soon as an ambulance passes through the
transmitter, it will transmit a signal to the receiver which is at
the traffic junction. Receiver will then stop the incoming
traffic and raise the alarm at the junction. For stolen vehicle
detection, the tags installed on the vehicle will be flagged as
stolen in the system and as soon as these vehicle cross any of
the junction RFID reader will inform the base station about the
location of the vehicle, to transmit data from the junction to the Fig 2-
base station we are using GMS 900 module which is capable Diagram for ambulance priority
of GPRS and can operate in low power mode.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION

A. Block diagram

RFID Reader will be placed on each intersection

based on the information received by the RFID tag,
receiver will know that what volume of vehicle is
approaching at any given intersection, the information
then will be relayed to the nearby station. The
transmitter will count number of vehicle based on the
density it will set the green light direction. A sensor
on the road will be placed a signal amplifier will be
placed next the sensor to boost the signal with the
help of embedded micro controller which generates
signal output, the micro controller is connected to RS
232 converter which feeds the data to pc.
. 
Fig 1: Block Diagram for automatic system control system
Fig 3: Block diagram for stolen vehicle detection
 Emergency Vehicle Clearance IR emitter will be
installed in ambulances. As soon as an ambulance
passes through the transmitter, it will transmit a signal
to the receiver which is at the traffic junction.
Receiver will then stop the incoming traffic and raise
the alarm at the junction.
Automatic Signal Control System IR transmitters will
be placed on both sides of the road near a junction.
These Transmitters will count the number of RFID
tags installed in the vehicles and determine the
density. Based on the density, it will set the green
light duration. For example, the RFID receiver will
know that what volume of vehicle is approaching at
any given intersection, the information then will be
relayed to the nearby station. The transmitter will
count number of vehicle based on the density it will
set the green light direction
 Stolen Vehicle tracking- when Stolen vehicle are
reported the RFID tags installed in them will be
 flagged stolen and if any of the flagged RFID tags
located using the RFID receiver nearby police station
will be alerted via SMS using he SIM900 GSM
module installed in every receiver

B. Hardware description

 RFID Reader- RFID will be installed in every

junction where the conventional traffic signals are
installed to read the RFID tags installed on the
vehicle.
 GSM 900 Module – GSM 900 model will be used
along with the RFID reader at every junction of the
Fig 6: VB basic Implementation
traffic signal to communicate with the base station, In
certain scenario GSM 900 model will be used to
communicate back and forth with the base station. There final simulation result will be show for two traffic
 Infrared Emitter (IR Emitter) An infrared is a conditions: Normal and Optimum. For normal mode, the
common wireless technology, it is easy to use and traffic light duration will be the same as used now a days. But
very easy to set up, the most common use of IR for optimum mode, depending on the traffic density the traffic
light duration will change accordingly.
emitter is remotes , IR emitters are light emitting
diode, embedded projects also consists of IR emitters
v. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE AND VALIDATION
where IR sensors are use to measure distance
proximity, it is a device that converts electrical signal The data has been collected from routing algorithm for
to infrared band light vehicular area networks [1] and the program to communicate
 Power Supply- the circuit AC currents to DC currents, with the hardware module is written on Visual Basic, the real
the below diagram explains the module comprises of time simulation corresponding output signal passed through
serial port to MAX232. MAX232 IC converts it into TTL logic
power supply circuit which perform the function.
and then sends the signal to the microcontroller. The
microcontroller is programmed using PIC Compiler using the
software Embedded C.

Fig 4: Diagram of modular Power Supply circuit

The DC output is more efficient for lamps and heater but it dose not
work well for electronic circuit based devices unless a smoothing is
used , below diagram demonstrate the application of smoothing with a
transformer

Fig 5: Transformer with rectifier and smoothing

C. Software description –Visual Basic.

Fig 7: DB-9 connector

 Visual Basic- The used for the traffic control is visual The microcontroller converts the signal to string format and
Basic to interact with the hardware modules, compares with the standard strings and the output is given to
The basic implementation of cades in visual basic has the corresponding relays in figure 7.
been demonstrated in the below snapshot.
Advantages and Application
 Technologies like RF transmitter, RFID and GSM
provide very cost effective solutions to control traffic.
 Time of travel will get reduced.
 It can be used to detect stolen vehicles.
vi. CONCLUSION
Solving traffic problem in any city is a challenge building new
roads dose not really solve the problem as I have explained in
my literature review, a simple and easy to set up plan can be
implemented to ease of traffic congestion. Further
enhancements can be done to increase the range of the signal,
create a database for the vehicle, using machine learning to
predict the volume of vehicle at any given point of time,
feeding historical data in the system with the help of the
current periodic data will help enhance the project further,
GSP can also be installed to track the exact location of the
stolen vehicle,
vii. REFERENCES
[10] Angelo Cenedese ; Andrea Zanella ; Lorenzo Vangelista ;
Michele Zorzi, “Padova Smart City: An urban Internet of
Things experimentation”, Proceeding of IEEE
International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile
and Multimedia Networks 2014 pp: 1-6.
[11] M. Grimmer, “Recent TRRL research on safety at traffic
signals”, IEE Colloquium on UK Developments in Road
Traffic Signalling’, 1988 pp: 6/1-6/3.
[12] M.J. Smith, “Optimum network control using traffic
signals”, IEE Colloquium on UK Developments in Road
Traffic Signalling pp: 8/1 - 8/3.
[13] Lu Shoufeng ; Liu Ximin, “Based on Hybrid Genetic
Algorithm and Cellular Automata Combined Traffic
Signal Control and Route Guidance”, 2007 Chinese
Control Conference pp: 53 - 57.
[14] P. Sood. Bangalore Traffic Police-Preparing for the
Future.
[15] A. K. Mittal and D. Bhandari, “A novel approach to
implement green wave system and detection of stolen
vehicles,” in Proc. IEEE 3rd Int. Adv. Comput., Feb. 2013

[1] Rajeshwari Sundar ; Santhoshs Hebbar ; Varaprasad Golla,

“Implementing Intelligent Traffic Control System for
Congestion Control Ambulance Clearance and Stolen
Vehicle Detection,” in IEEE Sensors Journal, pp 1109 -
1113.
[2] B. P. Gokulan and D. Srinivasan, “Distributed geometric
fuzzy multiagent urban traffic signal control,” IEEE Trans.
Intell. Transp. Syst,Sep. 2011, vol. 11, no. 3, pp 714-727.
[3] “Automatic Vehicle Identification System based on
RFID”, 2011 Infronics Systems Limited, pp 1-3.
[4] Shabnam Sayyed, Prajakta Das, “Design of Dynamic
Traffic Signal Control System”, International Journal of
Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)”, pp. 933-
938.
[5] Varsha Sahadev Nagmode ; S.M. Rajbhoj, “An IoT
Platform for Vehicle Traffic Monitoring System and
Controlling System Based on Priority”, 2017 International
Conference on Computing, Communication, Control and
Automation (ICCUBEA), pp. 1-5.
[6] Omid Avatefipour ; Froogh Sadry, “Traffic Management
System Using IoT Technology - A Comparative Review”,
2018 IEEE International Conference on
Electro/Information Technology (EIT) 2018 pp: 1041 –
1047.
[7] Stefan Schmid ; Thomas Richner ; Stefan Mangold ;
Thomas R. Gross, “EnLighting: An Indoor Visible Light
Communication System Based on Networked Light
Bulbs”, 2016 13th Annual IEEE International Conference
on Sensing, Communication, and Networking (SECON):
2016 pp: 1 - 9.
[8] Francisco Falcone, “Exploring IoT Industry Applications:
Limitations of Wireless Technology on Healthcare IoT”,
IEEE Courses.
[9] Quan Zhang ; Weisong Shi, “Tools and Software for Edge
Computing Applications”, 2018 IEEE Courses.