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Volume 1 Clean Mobility and Intelligent Transport Systems M. Fiorini and J.-C. Lin
(Editors)
Volume 2 Energy Systems for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles K.T. Chau (Editor)
Volume 5 Sliding Mode Control of Vehicle Dynamics A. Ferrara (Editor)
Volume 6 Low Carbon Mobility for Future Cities: Principles and applications H. Dia
(Editor)
Volume 7 Evaluation of Intelligent Road Transportation Systems: Methods and
results M. Lu (Editor)
Volume 8 Road Pricing: Technologies, economics and acceptability J. Walker (Editor)
Volume 9 Autonomous Decentralized Systems and their Applications in Transport
and Infrastructure K. Mori (Editor)
Volume 11 Navigation and Control of Autonomous Marine Vehicles S. Sharma and
B. Subudhi (Editors)
Volume 12 EMC and Functional Safety of Automotive Electronics K. Borgeest
Volume 16 ICT for Electric Vehicle Integration with the Smart Grid N. Kishor and
J. Fraile-Ardanuy (Editors)
Volume 17 Smart Sensing for Traffic Monitoring N. Ozaki (Editor)
Volume 25 Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems: Towards high-level
automated driving M. Lu (Editor)
Volume 38 The Electric Car M.H. Westbrook
Volume 45 Propulsion Systems for Hybrid Vehicles J. Miller
Volume 79 Vehicle-to-Grid: Linking electric vehicles to the smart grid J. Lu and
J. Hossain (Editors)
Driver Adaptation to Information and Assistance Systems Alan Stevens,
Corinne Brusque, Josef Krems (Editors)
Collection and Delivery
of Traffic and Travel
Information
Edited by
Paul Burton and Alan Stevens
This publication is copyright under the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright
Convention. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research
or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in
the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued
by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those
terms should be sent to the publisher at the undermentioned address:
While the authors and publisher believe that the information and guidance given in this
work are correct, all parties must rely upon their own skill and judgement when making
use of them. Neither the authors nor publisher assumes any liability to anyone for any
loss or damage caused by any error or omission in the work, whether such an error or
omission is the result of negligence or any other cause. Any and all such liability is
disclaimed.
The moral rights of the authors to be identified as authors of this work have been
asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Introduction 1
1.8 Outlook 25
References 26
3 Location referencing 37
Jon Harrod Booth
3.1 Introduction 37
3.2 Historic context 37
3.3 Location referencing terms and concepts 38
3.4 Basic concepts of location referencing 39
3.5 Location by coordinates 41
3.6 Pre-coded location referencing 42
3.6.1 RDS-TMC ALERT-C location referencing 42
3.7 Dynamic location referencing 44
3.7.1 Underpinning concepts 44
3.7.2 Further methods 47
3.8 Other LRMs 47
3.8.1 Linear referencing 48
3.8.2 What 3 words 49
3.9 Usage of LRMs in some standards for ITS 49
3.9.1 DATEX II 49
3.9.2 TPEG 50
3.9.3 TN-ITS 51
3.9.4 INSPIRE 51
3.9.5 Geographic data files (GDFs) 52
3.10 Location accuracy 52
3.10.1 Location referencing accuracy example 52
3.10.2 Timeliness and currency 55
3.11 Outlook on current developments and future needs 56
References 57
Contents vii
5.2.2 Germany 86
5.2.3 France 86
5.2.4 The United Kingdom 86
5.3 The European programmes 87
5.3.1 DRIVE research and development programme (1988–1991) 87
5.3.2 DRIVE2 research and development programme (1992–1994) 88
5.3.3 The EU Third Framework Programme (FP3) (1992–1995) 89
5.3.4 The EU 4th Framework Programme (FP4) (1996–1999) 90
5.3.5 The Trans European Network – Transport Programme
(TEN-T) (1996–1999) 91
5.4 The International Transport Forum (ITF) 98
5.5 The TMC Forum (1999–2007) 98
5.6 The EBU (B/TPEG) (1997–2007) 99
5.7 Traveller Information Services Association – TISA (2007–Present) 100
5.8 Standardisation (1990–Present) 101
5.9 Outlook 106
5.9.1 Contribution of Europe to TTI development more generally 106
5.9.2 Cooperative ITS (C-ITS) 106
5.9.3 Connected cooperative automated mobility (CCAM) 106
5.9.4 Social media-driven services 106
5.9.5 National access points 106
5.9.6 Standards 107
References 107
Index 325
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About the editors
Alan Stevens is a chartered engineer and fellow of the IET, and a visiting professor
at the University of Southampton, UK. He was previously research director of TRL
UK with interests including connected and automated vehicles, human behaviour
and evaluating the impacts of intelligent transport systems. He chaired ITS (UK),
serves on IET’s Transport Policy Panel and Automotive and Road Transport
Systems Professional Network, and is advisor to the IET Transportation book
program.
This page intentionally left blank
Biographies
Alan Stevens
journals and is the previous Chair of ITS (UK). Alan’s work has included input to
policy development for the EC, UK Central Government and Highways England,
including on intelligent transport systems, cooperative and automated vehicles,
eCall, and standards. He is also involved in designing research studies carrying out
specific technical investigations and supervising Ph.D.s. Topics include the design
and assessment of driver information (both on-vehicle and off-vehicle) and the
safety and responsibility of drivers when using connected and increasingly auto-
mated vehicles. Until recently, Alan was the chief scientist and research director at
TRL (the UK Transport Research Laboratory) where he had responsibility for
ensuring the technical quality of a wide range of projects in transportation.
Bev Marks
Bev trained at the BBC, England, qualifying as a broadcast and
communications engineer; he spent 25þ years working on radio & tv studio and
network systems, including the role of Project Manager RDS, BBC Radio with
responsibility for the multi-disciplinary team developing RDS technology, instal-
ling transmission equipment nation-wide, central computers and network circuits.
Latterly in his BBC career Bev was also Project Manager Travel Information
Systems, responsible for on-line computer based travel reporting in Police and
Public Authority control rooms, linked to Broadcasting House.
Bev was involved internationally in RDS development representing the BBC
on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) RDS Technical Experts Group and
Working Groups, including R/RDS-TMC and Universal Protocol. He is co-author
of a number of RDS patents.
Following several years industrial experience with a professional broadcast
equipment designer and manufacturer, he became a freelance broadcast engineer
and spent 14 years, mainly working as a senior broadcast engineer, for the EBU
working on many projects, including RDS, TMC and TTI Message Exchange
Systems and DAB systems developments.
During this period he became the Secretary to the EBU/RDS Forum and the
RDS specification, EN 50067, Working Group, Chairman of the RDS Guidelines
Working Group and Organiser of the EBU RDS Registrations Office.
Bev worked as a broadcast expert for the EC DG VII DEFI project during 1995
and took on the broadcast systems expert role with the CEN TC 278 SWG 4.1
which undertook RDS-TMC standardisation and within the FORCE Project on
RDS-TMC Implementation matters.
Meanwhile he worked as Senior Engineer on the EC DG XIII EBU-EPISODE
project, to undertake broadcast sector co-ordination of the RDS-TMC projects of
the 4th Framework RTD programme.
With the advent of the EBU initiative to establish the Transport Protocol
Experts Group, Bev was its founding Secretary and quickly became its Chairman
xx Collection and Delivery of Traffic and Travel Information
which he project managed through a period of change to become the TPEG Forum.
Eventually he managed the joint decision to amalgamate with the TMC Forum into
what is now the very well established TISA.
Bev was appointed the founding Executive Director of the Traveller
Information Services Association (TISA). Bev established the structures and
organisation of TISA that would serve efficiently and effectively the TISA mem-
bership, which comes from a very diverse industry. He is most pleased to see some
7 years after his retirement that TISA is still proving to be a key focus for TTI
services. He was honoured on his retirement in 2012 in being awarded a Fellowship
of the TISA.
Danny Woolard
Danny is an engineer by background specialising in survey and navigation and
now runs his own consultancy business (Chiltech). He has been actively involved in
the Traffic & ITS industry for over 25 years. His former business developed and
deployed the first commercial broadcast traffic service based on RDS-TMC in the
UK, finally selling this business to EU traffic service provider ITIS which, in 2011,
was acquired by INRIX. After 8 years heading up ITIS’s traffic business and with
long family ties to Australia, Danny moved to Australia in 2007, where he con-
tinued his career as GM Operations with traffic and telematics service provider
Intelematics. In 2012, Danny returned to Europe to work with INRIX.
Danny has played a significant role in the development of commercial Traffic
Services in the European market, both commercially and in European industry
groups, he chaired the TMC Forum for 4 years and oversaw its merger with the
TPEG Forum to create what is now TISA (Traveller Information Services
Association). He is still an active member of the TISA community as part of his
consultancy role with GEWI Europe.
Danny now lives and works from Devon, UK. A devout ‘Petrolhead’ and owns
a small collection of classic cars which he participates in Sprints and Hillclimbs.
John Mitchell
John is a senior researcher at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). He
has over 18 years’ research experience in the signing field, including fixed traffic
signs, variable-message signs and temporary traffic management signs. He has
been the technical lead for several research projects for the Department of
Transport, the Highways Agency/Highways England and Transport for London.
John has represented TRL in his specialist signing role at working group meetings
and technical workshops forming part of the UK Government’s Traffic Signs
Policy Review. He was the technical lead for one of the Policy Review’s major
research projects on reducing sign clutter. John took a lead author role in a
consultancy-based project for a Middle Eastern Government to update their Traffic
Signs Design Manual. John was the lead researcher at the TRL for the off-road
research trials conducted at TRL, in 2003, of the Motorway Signal Mark 4 (MS4).
John’s signing expertise has recently been used for a project commissioned by
Biographies xxi
Highways England to review their variable signs and signals (VSS) policy from a
human factor’s perspective.
Neil Hoose
Neil is a graduate civil engineer with an M.Sc. in Transport and a Ph.D. in the
application of computer vision techniques to transport. He has a track record in
leading transport-related projects in both industry and academia, including director-
level appointments in consultancy and manufacturing. With over 30 years in the
field, his experience ranges from academic research and teaching through project
management to manufacture and supply of electronic systems to the traffic data and
control industry. Since 1999, he has been an independent consultant in intelligent
transport systems. His consultancy activities encompass the public sector and pri-
vate sector clients. Alongside particular experience in traffic monitoring technol-
ogies and traffic control and data systems, he is involved in Smart Motorways,
connected vehicle-infrastructure systems and travel information systems. In addi-
tion, Neil is a visiting professor at the Centre for Transport Studies, Imperial
College London and is engaged in teaching at undergraduate and Master’s level as
well as supporting the centre’s research into intelligent transport systems. In 2019,
Neil was awarded a post-graduate certificate in cyber security management by the
University of Warwick.
Nick Illsley
Nick spent 26 years as a career railwayman having joined the British Rail from
School in 1976. During this period, the industry went through the privatisation
process and Nick became part of the Board for the newly privatised Thames Trains
company. Finally, he headed National Rail Enquiries before joining the Civil
Service in August 2002 as the chief executive at Transport Direct. The Transport
Direct portal was launched on 30 December 2004 and then serviced over
100 million user sessions. Highlights included working with the Olympics Family
to deliver journey planning services for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games and embedding accessible travel as a GB-wide service. Nick was also
responsible for driving the transport transparency strategy across the sector, which
has been considered to be one of the success stories of Open Data in terms of both
re-use and also new applications for end-users. When the Transport Direct portal
closed on 30 September 2014, Nick decided to call time on life at the DfT and is
now enjoying some more leisure time and is also helping organisations use data and
information to drive efficiency and better customer experience. Outside work, his
interests revolve around sport (an optimistic but always worried England and Leeds
fan), family (a daughter of 35 and a son of 33 and three grandsons of 6, 4 and 2) and
trying to keep in touch with as many friends and colleagues as possible.
Susan Grant-Muller
Susan is Professor of Technologies and Informatics at the Institute for
Transport Studies, University of Leeds, and a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute.
Susan’s research is at the multidisciplinary interface between digital technologies,
xxii Collection and Delivery of Traffic and Travel Information
Big Data and transport under a low carbon energy future. She leads the ‘Digital
Futures’ research theme at ITS, a research theme initiated by Prof. Grant-Muller in
2015 and building on rapid and recent developments in pervasive technology. Her
specific interests are in incentivising behavioural change to reduce the carbon
burden of the transport sector, the role of Big Data in sustainable transport para-
digms, the evaluation of new technology-based intelligent transport schemes and
the resilience of ICT-enhanced transport.
Frances Hodgson
Frances is a senior research fellow at the University of Leeds. She has
30 years’ experience working on the social impacts of transport. She contributes to
international work through European and nationally funded projects providing
specialist input on the interaction between transport, social equity, behaviour,
social organisation and transport policy and was co-investigator on H2020
EMPOWER, ESRC HABITs, Alan Turing Institute KARMA projects, all of which
are concerned with the application and value of new data forms (e.g., mobile apps,
social media). She was UK representative for the COST GenderSTE action on
Transport and Gender, expert advisor to the Co-Motion project on older people’s
mobility. She has 15 years of experience in providing capacity building in the form
of Masters training and short courses and Doctoral student supervision and is the
programme director for the MSc Transport Planning. She has published for the
Equal Opportunities Commission and in the many international journals.
Foreword
This book is the result of a desire by a range of UK ITS professionals to record the
progress in traffic and traveller information (TTI), particularly from its origins in the
United Kingdom which then influenced and, of course, interacted with developments
in Europe and indeed the rest of the world. The chapters have been contributed by
leading exponents in the field of TTI and encompass collaborations during research
and development through to implementation by industry; hence, the very different
styles of the chapters and complementary overlap from different perspectives.
It should be appreciated that traffic information came much later than the need
to provide travellers with information on their journeys, for instance, to markets or
on pilgrimages, so TTI (or just traveller information) might be a better title as
traffic information is just a contributary part, albeit a substantial one, of the whole
travel picture.
Travellers have always needed information before and during their travels,
whether it be which roads/paths are open, which are safe, facilities on route such as
staging posts and hostelries, the availability and costs of ferries and bridges, and the
time needed to complete their journeys. Originally this information was passed on
by word of mouth and was of an informal nature; then, mileposts and road signs at
intervals and decision points gave some further information to the traveller.
The collection of information became part of the TTI story from the turnpike
operation which needed to assess the income from traffic over a toll bridge or toll
road, to the stage-coach operator who wanted to assess the demand for their services.
Detecting and counting of vehicles has a long history in the developed countries
since the rapid increase in road transport during the twentieth century; there has
always been a need to count and classify! Of course, in the early days it was a totally
manual operation with the toll keeper inspecting every vehicle and charging appro-
priately. Today, we have much more sophisticated methodologies with gantries and
video detection systems to determine the type of vehicle and load in order to apply a
charge. Emerging technology now allows the collection of a much broader range of
data from vehicles and the technology is likely to extend even further with remote
sensing from satellites. In between these extremes there is a panoply of technology
used for a variety of purposes.
Traffic data is not only collected by instrumentation; visual reports and more
‘journalist’ information are collected from the ground or from the air as part of the
media editorial contribution.
2 Collection and delivery of traffic and travel information
During the years up until the early 1990s, the provision of TTI, at least in the
United Kingdom, was almost entirely the preserve of the public sector which ran
train and regulated bus services and were responsible, totally, for the roads. Then,
with privatisation of most travel services the private sector moved in to supply TTI
as a service to travellers, and this has further increased following the advent of
social media where data is crowdsourced and is increasingly being integrated with
other services. In all these myriad offerings, business cases are key to providing
sustainable services.
From the early 2000s, only a small proportion of the TTI available was able to
be widely broadcast because time-slots on television, and even more so on radio,
were limited. In addition, the broadcasting areas were so large that only travel
information of national strategic importance was considered appropriate rather than
local information that would be of real use, so only to a relatively small proportion
of the broadcast audience.
The collection, collation and transmission of TTI has been transformed
through digital coding with standardised applications such as DATEX 2, RDS-
TMC and TPEG, and, increasingly, this coded information is now being integrated
into intelligent agents and within in-vehicle services, such as satellite navigation.
Much of the research and development (R & D) of TTI systems in Europe has
been supported by the European Union Framework R & D programmes and has
been trialled in cross border projects. These developments have informed and been
complementary with standardisation work in Europe and internationally. Whilst
recognising this wider context, this book offers many examples of developments
and deployments of TTI in the United Kingdom, which has both contributed to and
benefitted from this wider international collaboration on TTI.
TTI services would be largely useless without providing geographical and
other contextual information to allow users to make sense of the messages. As a
key part of the TTI story, this book details the development and application of
location referencing services.
TTI does not exist in isolation as an application but plays an integral part in the
operation of many transport services. For example, in an inter-urban road context,
TTI supports the development and rollout of ‘smart’ motorways where messages to
drivers can have an immediate effect on their behaviour and help to ensure safe and
efficient use of the road space. The backbone for immediate delivery of this traffic
information to drivers is through the development and implementation of dynamic
signage (variable message signs), which provides dynamic traffic information to
road users on the UK’s Strategic Road Network, but also the provision of traffic
information on non-strategic roads, primarily in urban areas.
As we look to the future of road travel, a current focus to improve safety and
increase capacity is for vehicles to actively cooperate with the road infrastructure
and, eventually, with other vehicles. This ‘Cooperative Intelligent Transport
System’ approach will use the whole spectrum of the TTI applications along with
other intelligent transport technologies, particularly communications.
Much of the TTI described in this book focuses on road transport because that
is where most initiatives begin as there is no inherent data collection and
Introduction 3
1.1 Introduction
Detecting and counting of vehicles has a long history in the developed countries;
there has always been a need to count and classify vehicles from the days of private
roads and bridges with their manual toll charges for different classes of vehicles
and goods. Of course, in the early days, it was a totally manual operation with the
toll keeper inspecting every vehicle and charging appropriately. Today, we have a
much more sophisticated methodology with gantries and video detection systems to
determine the type of vehicle and load to apply a charge. Emerging technology
allows the collection of a much broader range of data from vehicles and the tech-
nology is likely to extend even further with remote sensing from satellites. In
between these extremes, there is a panoply of technology used for a variety of
purposes.
This chapter considers different types of data detection and collection and
suggests how they are used, rather than starting with an application requirement
and determining the type of data required; it also concerns the collection of data for
use in road transport and does not consider the detection and collection for rail and
air.
1
CEN/TC278 WG4 and ISO/TC204 WG10 – Traffic and Traveller Information, Worcestershire, UK
2
Bittern Consulting Ltd., Oxfordshire, UK
6 Collection and delivery of traffic and travel information
RAC provided assistance and guides on bicycles, then motorcycles and vans were
gradually introduced.
Both the RAC and AA patrols out on the road were useful sources of motoring
information and were the bedrock of the traffic situation services for the members
of their organisations. Of course, there were only reports of traffic conditions where
a patrol happened to be at the time; in essence very piecemeal.
Communications from the patrols in the early days, before personal two-way
radio, was via the AA and RAC call boxes that used land lines. Even up to the late
1970s, the AA members’ pack contained a key for the AA telephone boxes!
At the time of writing, the RAC do not directly provide traffic and travel
information. The AA still do, via their AA Roadwatch services, but it is doubtful
whether much information now comes from patrols.
the wellbeing of the individual, ghoulish, but an illustration of the power of image-
processing for incident detection.
No doubt that by the time of the publication of this book even more powerful
software and systems will be developed to make the most of the CCTV resource, if
one can still call it closed circuit in these days of complex wide area networks.
More sophisticated systems were introduced with two tubes set at a known
distance apart. This allows counting separately in both directions; the direction of the
vehicle being determined by which tube is activated first. Again, the system counts
axels, so derived vehicle count estimates will not be entirely accurate, depending on
the mix of vehicles at the site and whether vehicles trigger the counter tubes simul-
taneously. A double-tube system can also calculate speeds – the time from triggering
of the first tube to triggering of the second tube. The photograph of a rubber tube
system in Figure 1.1 was taken in 2019 and was being used to record speeds in a
country lane in Worcestershire due to residents’ concerns over speeds.
Despite the shortcomings of tube detectors they are still very much used in the
non-motorway trunk road network as they provide a cheap, low-tech, temporary
solution where absolute accuracy is not required.
Before the widespread use of inductive loop detectors at traffic lights, pneumatic
strips were used set into steel formers at the stop line to determine the presence of
vehicles.
A set number of turns of wire, defined by the application and detector technology,
are wound in the slot in the road surface. The road surface is then made good with pitch
which also makes a waterproof seal for the loop. The ends of the loop are returned to
the side of the road via a long slot which, on multilane carriageways, will involve
cutting the slot across lanes to join between the loop and the roadside cabinet.
Inside the cabinet there is a detector for each lane, although the detector circuit
board cards can contain a number of channels, one for each lane. The detectors feed a
current into the loop at a frequency so that the loop resonates (typically 20–80 kHz).
A vehicle passing over the loop changes the field around the loop, so it resonates
at a higher frequency; the closer the vehicle is to the road surface the greater the
increase in frequency. This change of frequency is detected, indicating the presence
of a vehicle.
A single loop installation can determine the occupancy, i.e. how much time a
vehicle is over a loop, due to either its speed or length. The speed of a vehicle can be
determined using two loops (from when it ‘fires’ the first loop to when it ‘fires’ the
second loop). It is also possible to obtain the number of axels on a vehicle, but it is not
always straightforward as the metallic bulk of a vehicle can mask the presence of
axels. Classification by length is possible by combining the speed of a vehicle with
the length of time the vehicle is present over the loop.
Inductive loop sets can be unidirectional or bidirectional in the same way as
the rubber tube versions.
The power requirement for loops and detectors is relatively low and they are
often powered by solar cells and batteries. The communication via mobile cellular
radio is often the largest consumer of power and is often only powered when
communication needs to take place to download data.
Installing inductive loops is a skilled and disruptive activity. Lanes, and in the
case of multilane carriageways the whole carriageway, have to be closed to allow
the sawing of slots into the surface and bringing the loop tails back to the side of the
road. On single lane roads the tails of both carriageways are generally brought to a
cabinet on one side of the carriageway only.
Being in the road surface, loops are generally reliable and the detectors are self-
tuning so little day to day maintenance is required. However, the loops are vulnerable
when there are roadworks and resurfacing works, which causes a problem when they
have to be recut. Experience in hot climates, for example, in Hong Kong, is that loops
are vulnerable when the road surface softens in the heat and is rucked up by buses
braking at a junction. Additionally, they do not work well where there is a lot of metal
in the surrounding infrastructure such as bridges, flyovers and reinforced
concrete roads.
Inductive loops can be used for historical data collection for offline analysis and
in real time for traffic control in systems such as SCOOT [7] or single sets of isolated
demand dependant signals. Inductive loops are used in the MIDAS (Motorway
Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling) motorway warning systems [9], but
they are gradually being phased out in favour of side fire RADAR/LIDAR which are
less disruptive to the road surface and where there is power readily available.
12 Collection and delivery of traffic and travel information
1.5.5 Magnetometers
The main problem with inductive loops is the disruption to road traffic caused by
their installation and maintenance. Magnetometer systems can alleviate this problem
[12]. Magnetometers work by detecting the change in the earth’s magnetism caused
by metal objects passing by.
Magnetometers can be sourced that are around 150 mm diameter and 150 mm
height that can be installed by removing a core from the road surface and placing the
magnetometer in the resulting hole and then asphalt or pitch filled in to make the
surface level. The magnetometers are battery powered and can last up to 8 years;
they transmit their signal to the roadside cabinet by radio. The detection area of the
magnetometer is relatively stable and definable so that they can be used instead of
inductive loops.
Installation of magnetometer detectors is quicker and simpler than sawing slots in
the road surface for loop detectors. A core drill mounted on the back of a moving lane
closure vehicle can remove a core in a matter of a few minutes, the magnetometer
placed in the hole and the surface made good. As there is no slot cutting needed to take
a lead to the roadside only the lane being installed is affected.
Disadvantages of magnetometers are their expense and the lifetime of the
battery. The cabinet also needs mains power to enable the receivers.
1.5.6 RADAR
Previous sections describe the benefits and disbenefits of road surface detection
technology. A way of overcoming the installation and maintenance issues is to use
technology remote from the road surface. Highways England are introducing Side
Fire RADAR mounted on poles at the side of the carriageway that can detect
Road traffic data collection 13
vehicles in each lane with sufficient detail to fulfil the data needs for MIDAS [9]
and the Controlled Motorway systems.
Radio detection and ranging (RADAR) technology was first applied to traffic
sensing during the 1980s when advances in solid state technology allowed compact
and affordable devices to be made, suitable for detecting the presence of traffic at
signal junctions. These devices use ‘continuous wave’ (CW) radar to detect the shift in
frequency between an emitted signal at a known frequency and the reflection of that
signal from a moving object, a phenomenon known as Doppler shift. The technology
can be calibrated so that the device can measure the speed of the object based on the
magnitude of the shift. The direction of the shift can be used to discriminate between
objects moving towards or away from the detector. Calibrated CW radars are used in
some speed enforcement systems.
The limitation with CW radars is that an object will not be detected unless it is
moving and so the distance to a target object cannot be determined. These problems
can be overcome by the use of ‘modulated’ radar beams. Instead of using a con-
tinuous wave at a single fixed frequency, the emitted signal frequency can be
changed continuously according to a predetermined configuration. This is called
frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar as shown in Figure 1.2. The
technique compares the frequency of a returned signal with the frequency being
transmitted at that time. Because the rate of change of the emitted frequency is
known, the difference between it and the return signal is proportional to the time
taken for the signal to reach the target and return. The speed of the signal is the
speed of light and hence the range to the target can be determined from:
Target range ¼ 1=2ððF2 F1 ÞcÞ=R
Frequency
F2
F1
Slope = R
Target
Time
Time F1
returns
Transmitted signal
Return signal
where
F1 ¼ Return signal frequency
F2 ¼ Transmit frequency at time return frequency F1 is detected
R ¼ Rate of change of transmitted frequency
c ¼ Speed of light
Division by two is needed because time of flight is to target and back.
RADAR uses the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum and FMCW
devices typically operate in the 18–26 GHz (also known as K-band) region. An
individual device will operate in a narrow segment of this, for example the
Wavetronix HD device operates in the range 24.0–24.25 GHz.
Doppler (CW) radars need to be mounted so that the beam is along the traffic
stream as it is the movement of the vehicles that is important. If such a radar is
mounted looking across the traffic it will not be able to reliably detect vehicles as
the movement component along the radar beam will be very small. This is not the
case or FMCW radars, as targets can be identified whether or not they are moving
and so the device can face in any direction. Furthermore, because the range of the
target is known, those targets at similar distances can be grouped together and a set
of detection ‘zones’ can be set up. Thus, an FMCW radar mounted at the side of the
road with its detection beam at right angles to the traffic can have a detection zone
for each lane and this single device can monitor multiple lanes of traffic. As the
radar beam is orthogonal to the traffic the Doppler effect cannot be used to monitor
speed. If two beams are placed in parallel a known distance apart the speed can be
determined by the arrival time of a target in each beam. This is analogous to the
method used to measure speed by inductive loops.
A typical ‘side fire’ arrangement is shown in Figure 1.3. A device is mounted
4–6 m above the ground and a similar distance back from road edge looking
Operating frequency
24.0–24.25 GHz (K-band)
Potential for
tall vehicles to
mask lower
vehicles in
other lanes Single device
covers multiple
lanes.
Need to avoid
multi-path
reflections from
metallic fixed
structures, e.g.
Gantries
orthogonal to the direction of the traffic. The advances in radar electronics mean
that the pair of radar beams can be enclosed in a single, compact housing easily
mounted on a lighting column or its own pole. Such a device can monitor multiple
lanes, enough to monitor both carriageways of a dual 4- or 5-lane highway from
one side.
The data output from the device is the same type of traffic data produced by
inductive loops. Therefore, this data can be fed directly into most incident and
queue detection algorithms that are based on such data analysis.
Radars are very tolerant of poor weather and are only affected by extremely
heavy rain or snow. They are vulnerable to electromagnetic interference from other
devices transmitting in the same frequency range. The quality of the data can be
affected by large vehicles nearer to the device obscuring smaller vehicles further
away. This problem becomes more severe with increased traffic density and with
increased flows of tall heavy goods vehicles or buses in the lanes nearest the device.
Radars are also subject to multi-path reflections where the radar has reflected from
multiple surfaces. These can create false targets in the detection zones.
Radars can be difficult to align and vibration or thermal effects in the mounting
can shift the beam direction such that detection zones temporarily include fixed
objects (e.g. safety barriers) that create false detections for as long as the beam is
out of alignment.
1.5.7 LiDAR
LiDAR uses pulse-encoded laser light to measure the distance from the emitting
device to any reflective surface. Unlike radar, the beam is very narrow in both
vertical and horizontal directions. Devices usually comprise a number of emission–
detection pairs mounted vertically. These can either be fixed or mounted on a
rotating platform to provide a swept area of detection. The output from the sensing
is referred to as a ‘point cloud’ which is a set of data points where each point is
defined by a vector of horizontal angle, azimuth, range and reflected intensity.
These devices have many applications including traffic measurement and are per-
haps best known as part for their use in Google Streetview and Google-automated
vehicles. They have been used for highly accurate counting and classification in toll
booths and, in principle, could be deployed to provide target tracking and incident
detection.
crossed over, giving erroneous readings or readings for the wrong lane. It is also
more common than one would imagine for there to be confusion in the naming of
detector sites so that the outstation identifier is wrongly paired with the identifier at
the instation. In some cases, it was discovered that outstations were on a completely
different road to that recorded at the instation.
Traditionally, to check the accuracy of flow data, a video recording of the
traffic has been made and a manual count made of the vehicles passing a reporting
point. The counts are then compared with the flow data so that the accuracy of the
data can be assessed. However, there are well over 6,000 reporting points on the
Highways England network alone, so checking accuracy in this manner would take
a very long time and, given that the majority of data are accurate, would be
extremely inefficient. An additional problem associated with video assessment is
the possibility of manual counting errors. These could result in an accurate site
being assessed as inaccurate and vice versa. Where a site is initially assessed as
inaccurate, the counts can be re-checked to eliminate the errors. However, if an
inaccurate site is assessed as accurate, it is unlikely to be rechecked and therefore
the inaccuracy will never be detected, unless it is selected as part of a future random
sample.
In the late 2000s, CAVEMAN – Continuous Assessment of Validation Equations
by Monitoring the Agency Network – was developed at the then NTCC (National
Traffic Control Centre) at Quinton, UK.
CAVEMAN was based on the Long-term Integration Process (LIP), derived
from Kirchhoff’s law for electric current. In the case of traffic data, the currents are
vehicle flows at upstream and downstream Reporting Points. The implication of this
is that if the upstream and downstream flows are different, there must be either an
unknown sink into which vehicles disappear or an unknown source from which
vehicles can join the road. By integrating the flows over a long period of time and
taking an average, the difference between the two should be extremely small. Where
significant differences exist, one or more of the flows must be inaccurate. Where it is
not possible to measure the entry and exit flows at unmonitored junctions, opposite
flows can be compared (e.g. northbound and southbound are assumed to have equal
flows). A small number of exceptions exist (notable amongst these is the Severn
Bridge, where a toll was charged (at the time) to cross into Wales but not in the
opposite direction). Once such a location is known and its effect quantified, it can be
used in the same way as before but using the required factor to compare the
opposite flows.
The network is divided into junction sets. There is some variation in the con-
figuration of the junction sets, depending on the road type. The most common type
of junction set is the Motorway grade-separated junction. An example is shown in
Figure 1.4.
The flow at Link 1 is compared with the sum of those at Links 6 and 7, with the
sum of the flows at Links 2 and 4 and with the flow at Link 12. These are known as
validation equations. If all agree within a defined limit of accuracy, then all can be
regarded as accurate. If they all disagree, the flow on Link 1 is inaccurate. If one is
wrong and the others are correct, the flow on Link 1 is almost certainly accurate
Road traffic data collection 17
7 4 5 9
6 1 2 3 8
17 18 12 14 11 10 15
13 16
and the inaccuracy will be in one of the other flows. All the comparisons can be
verified against each other.
The concept of ‘continuous assessment’ was developed to allow an automatic
measure of delivered service level on the English strategic road network. Previous
to the introduction of CAVEMAN, the service level had been assessed on a
monthly basis by using video survey results and using a statistical method. The
single criterion was (and still is) that the product of the percentage of all reported
data accurate to within defined levels of tolerance and the overall availability must
be greater than 95%. For example, if 98% of all reported data were accurate to
within the defined levels of tolerance, in order to meet the criterion, the overall
availability of data must be 97%. The main disadvantages of the video survey
method, apart from the cost, is that it depends on the ability of individuals to count
and classify vehicles and it only considered a 2-h snapshot within the month. The
consequence of the snapshot is that a data report that is in error for a short period of
time is either reported as totally bad or totally good, depending on the timing of the
snapshot.
CAVEMAN calculates the accuracy for each data report on a daily basis by
applying each validation equation to the whole of the data from the previous seven
days – this period has been determined as the optimum time span for validating
traffic flows using the LIP validation model. This allows a total assessment to be
made for every data report for the entire month. A great advantage of this is that
every error that occurs will be reported, but only for the duration of the error. Daily,
weekly and monthly reports of errors are generated, so that when errors occur they
can quickly either be corrected or be marked as unavailable until repairs can be
made. CAVEMAN has now been accepted by Highways England as the prescribed
method for assessing service level for traffic flow data.
CAVEMAN validation equations define conditions where the net flow described
by a validation calculation is zero.
The following is an example showing the derivation of a validation equation for
a typical node in the project network.
Figure 1.5 shows a representation of three links joining at a single node.
If a, b and c represent the vehicle flow rate on the links, the test criteria are
aþbc¼0
18 Collection and delivery of traffic and travel information
a b c
Category Allowed error for all traffic flows Allowed error for classified flows
(%) (%)
A 10 15
B 15 23
C 20 30
Category Allowed error for all traffic flows Allowed error for classified flows
7-day (%) Single day (%) 7-day (%) Single day (%)
A 5 10 15 20
B 10 20 20 25
C 15 30 25 40
Mr. Specter. May the record show that Dr. Kemp Clark has
returned to have a few additional questions asked of him following
the deposition which was taken on March 21.
Dr. Clark, the purpose of this additional deposition is the same as
the first one, except that I am going to ask you a few additional
questions based upon a translation of an article which appeared in
"L' Express", which has been provided to me since the deposition of
last Saturday.
Would you please stand up again and raise your right hand?
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you will give before
the President's Commission in this deposition proceeding will be the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Dr. Clark. I do.
Mr. Specter. Dr. Clark, I have made available to you, have I not,
what purports to be a translation from French of the "L' Express"
issue of February 20, 1964?
Dr. Clark. Yes, sir.
Mr. Specter. And let me read for the record and for you this
excerpt.
"On his part according to the New York Times of November 27,
'Dr. Kemp Clark, who signed the Kennedy death certificate, declared
that a bullet hit him right where the knot of his necktie was.' He
added," apparently referring to you, "'this bullet penetrated into his
chest and did not come out'. The surgeon went on to say that the
second wound of the President was 'tangential' and that it had been
caused by a bullet which hit 'the right side of his head'".
Dr. Clark, my first question is—what, if anything, did you say to a
New York Times representative or anyone, for that matter, with
respect to whether a bullet hit the President where the knot of his
necktie was.
Dr. Clark. I remember using the phrase to describe the location
of a wound in the President's throat as being at the point of his knot
of his necktie. I do not recall ever specifically stating that this was an
entrance wound, as has been said before. I was not present when
the President arrived and did not see this wound. If any statement
regarding its entrance or exit was made by me, it was indicating that
there was a small wound described there by the physicians who first
saw the President.
A specific quotation regarding entrance or exit, I feel, is a partial
quotation or incompletely quoted from me. The part pertaining to
the bullet entering the President's chest rests on the reasons for the
placing of the chest tubes which were being inserted when I arrived.
It was the assumption, based on the previously described deviation
of the trachea and the presence of blood in the strap muscles of the
neck that a wound or missile wound might have entered the
President's chest.
Mr. Specter. Well, what was there, Dr. Clark, in the deviation of
the trachea and the presence of blood in the strap muscles of the
neck which so indicated?
Dr. Clark. Assuming that a missile had entered the pleural space,
if there had been bleeding into the pleural space, the trachea would
have been deviated or had there been leakage of air into the pleural
space, the trachea would have been deviated, as it is the main
conduit of air to the two lungs. Collapse of a lung would have
produced, or will produce deviation of the trachea. There being a
wound in the throat, there being blood in the strap muscles and
there being deviation of the trachea in the presence of a grievously
wounded patient without opportunity for X-ray or other diagnostic
measures, Dr. Perry assumed that the findings in the neck were due
to penetration of the missile into the chest. For this reason, he
requested chest tubes to be placed.
Mr. Specter. Well, is the deviation of the trachea and the
presence of bleeding on the strap muscles of the neck and the other
factors which you have recited equally consistent with a wound of
exit on the neck?
Dr. Clark. Yes, sir. Furthermore, let me say that the presence of
the deviation of the trachea, with blood in the strap muscles, are by
no means diagnostic of penetration of the chest, and the placing of
the chest tubes was prophylactic had such an eventuality occurred.
Mr. Specter. Was there any external indication that there was a
missile in the chest?
Dr. Clark. No, sir.
Mr. Specter. Was it the preliminary thought that the missile might
have been in the chest by virtue of the fact that this wound was
noted on the neck?
Dr. Clark. Yes; with the other factors I have enumerated.
Mr. Specter. And at that time, not knowing what the angle might
have been or any of the surrounding circumstances, then you
proceeded to take precautionary measures as if there might have
been a missile in the chest at some point?
Dr. Clark. That is correct. Measures were taken, assuming the
worst had happened.
Mr. Specter. As the quotation appears in the issue of "L' Express,"
"This bullet penetrated into his chest and did not come out," would
that then be an accurate quotation of something that you said, Dr.
Clark?
Dr. Clark. No, sir.
Mr. Specter. Dr. Clark, while you are here again, I would like to
ask you a few additional questions.
Let the record show that since I have taken your deposition, I
have taken the depositions of many additional witnesses and none
has been transcribed, so I am not in a position to refer to a record to
see what I asked you before or to frankly recollect precisely what I
asked you before, so, to some extent these questions may be
overlapping.
Did you observe the President's back at that time when he was
in the emergency room?
Dr. Clark. No, sir.
Mr. Specter. What was the reason for your not looking at his
back?
Dr. Clark. First, the duration of time that the President was alive
in the emergency room was a brief duration. All efforts were bent
toward saving his life rather than inspection for precise location of
wounds. After his death it was not our position to try to evaluate all
of the conceivable organs or areas of the body, knowing that an
autopsy would be performed and that this would be far more
meaningful than a cursory external examination here.
Mr. Specter. Was there any bleeding wound in the President's
back?
Dr. Clark. In the back of his head.
Mr. Specter. But how about on the back of his body, was there
any bleeding wound noted?
Dr. Clark. Since we did not turn the President over, I cannot
answer that specifically. We saw none, as I previously stated.
Mr. Specter. Did you undertake any action to ascertain whether
there had been a violation to a major extent of the back part of his
body?
Dr. Clark. No, sir.
Mr. Specter. That is, none was taken by you personally?
Dr. Clark. That's correct.
Mr. Specter. Dr. Carrico testified earlier today, being the first
doctor to reach him, that he felt the President's back to determine
whether there was any major violation of that area.
Would that be a customary action to take to ascertain whether
there was any major wound, by the doctor who first examined the
patient?
Dr. Clark. Yes, sir.
Mr. Specter. Assuming that the President had a bullet wound of
entry on the upper right posterior thorax, just above the upper
border of the scapula, 14 cms. from the right acromion process, 14
cm. below the tip of the right mastoid process, would there have
been a bloody type wound?
Dr. Clark. I'm sorry—your question?
Mr. Specter. Would such a wound of entry by a missile traveling
approximately 2,000 feet per second, approximately 6.5 mm. in
diameter, cause a bloody type of a wound?
Dr. Clark. No, sir. Such a wound could have easily been
overlooked in the presence of the much larger wound in the right
occipital region of the President's skull, from which considerable
blood loss had occurred which stained the back of his head, neck
and upper shoulders.
Mr. Specter. Dr. Clark, I want to ask you a question as it is raised
here in "L' Express".
"How did the practitioner who signed the death certificate of the
President fail to take the trouble to turn him over?"
Of course, that refers to you and will you give me your answer
to that question, as the news media has posed it?
Dr. Clark. Quite simply, as I previously stated, the duration of
time the President was alive was occupied by attempts to save his
life. When these failed, further examination of the patient's body
was not done, as it was felt that little could be gained or learned
that would be helpful in deciding the course of events leading up to
his assassination, that is, examination by me, as I knew an autopsy
would be performed which would be far more meaningful and
revealing than any cursory external examination conducted in the
emergency room by me.
Mr. Specter. Now, was the action taken by you in signing the
death certificate based upon the examination which you made in
accordance with what you believed to be good medical practice?
Dr. Clark. Yes, sir.
Mr. Specter. So that the characterization here of "L' Express" that
the failure to turn the President over would not constitute gross
negligence in your professional judgment, as they have
characterized it here.
Dr. Clark. No, sir. One other point, if I may here?
Mr. Specter. Yes.
Dr. Clark. In order to move the President's body to Bethesda
where the autopsy was to be performed, a death certificate had to
be filled out in conformance with Texas State law to allow the body
to be transported. This is the second part of the signing of the death
certificate.
Mr. Specter. Do you have anything to add, Dr. Clark, which you
think might be helpful at all in the inquiry being made by the
President's Commission?
Dr. Clark. No; I don't think so.
Mr. Specter. And did you and I chat for just a moment or two
about the questions I would ask you on this supplemental deposition
before it went on the record?
Dr. Clark. Yes, sir.
Mr. Specter. And have you talked to any representative of the
Federal Government between the time I took your deposition last
Saturday and this Wednesday morning?
Dr. Clark. No, sir.
Mr. Specter. Thank you very much, Dr. Clark.
Dr. Clark. All right.
TESTIMONY OF DR. ROBERT
NELSON McCLELLAND
The testimony of Dr. Robert Nelson McClelland was taken on
March 21, 1964, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Tex., by Mr.
Arlen Specter, assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Mr. Specter. May the record show that Dr. Robert M. McClelland
has returned to have a brief additional deposition concerning a
translation of "L' Express" which has been called to my attention in
the intervening time which has elapsed between March 21, when I
took Dr. McClelland's deposition on the first occasion, and today.
Dr. McClelland, will you raise your right hand? Do you solemnly
swear that the testimony you will give to the President's Commission
in this deposition proceeding will be the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Dr. McClelland. I do.
Mr. Specter. Dr. McClelland, I show you a translation from the
French, of the magazine, "L' Express" issue of February 20, 1964,
and ask you if you would read this item, with particular emphasis on
a reference to a quotation or statement made by you to a reporter
from the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Dr. McClelland. (Examined instrument referred to.)
Mr. Specter. Now, have you had an opportunity to read over that
excerpt?
Dr. McClelland. Yes.
Mr. Specter. Did you talk to a reporter from the St. Louis Post
Dispatch about this matter?
Dr. McClelland. Yes.
Mr. Specter. And what was his name?
Dr. McClelland. Richard Dudman.
Mr. Specter. And when did you have that conversation with Mr.
Dudman?
Dr. McClelland. As well as I recall, it was the day after the
assassination, as nearly as I can recall, but I'm not certain about
that.
Mr. Specter. Will you tell me as closely as you remember what he
said to you and you said to him, please?
Dr. McClelland. The main point he seemed to be making was to
attempt to define something about the wound, the nature of the
wound, and as near as I can recall, I indicated to him that the
wound was a small undamaged—appearing punctate area in the skin
of the neck, the anterior part of the neck, which had the appearance
of the usual entrance wound of a bullet, but that this certainly could
not be—you couldn't make a statement to that effect with any
complete degree of certainty, though we were, as I told him,
experienced in seeing wounds of this nature, and usually felt that we
could tell the difference between an entrance and an exit wound,
and this was, I think, in essence what I told him about the nature of
the wound.
Mr. Specter. Now, had you actually observed the wound prior to
the time the tracheotomy was performed on that neck wound?
Dr. McClelland. No; my knowledge of the entrance wound, as I
stated, in my former deposition, was merely from what Dr. Perry told
me when I entered the room and began putting on a pair of surgical
gloves to assist with the tracheotomy.
Dr. Perry looked up briefly and said that they had made an
incision and were in the process of making an incision in the neck,
which extended through the middle of the wound in question in the
front of the neck.
Mr. Specter. Now, you have just characterized it in that last
answer as an entrance wound.
Dr. McClelland. Well, perhaps I shouldn't say the wound anyway,
not the entrance wound—that might be a slip of the tongue.
Mr. Specter. Do you have a firm opinion at this time as to
whether it is an entrance wound or exit wound or whatever?
Dr. McClelland. Of course, my opinion now would be colored by
everything that I've heard about it and seen since, but I'll say this, if
I were simply looking at the wound again and had seen the wound
in its unchanged state, and which I did not, and, of course, as I say,
it had already been opened up by the tracheotomy incision when I
saw the wound—but if I saw the wound in its state in which Dr.
Perry described it to me, I would probably initially think this were an
entrance wound, knowing nothing about the circumstances as I did
at the time, but I really couldn't say—that's the whole point. This
would merely be a calculated guess, and that's all, not knowing
anything more than just seeing the wound itself.
Mr. Specter. But did you, in fact, see the wound prior to the time
the incision was made?
Dr. McClelland. No.
Mr. Specter. So that any preliminary thought you had even, would
be based upon what you had been told by Dr. Perry?
Dr. McClelland. That's right.
Mr. Specter. Now, did you tell Mr. Dudman of the St. Louis Post
Dispatch that you did not in fact see the wound in the neck, but your
only information of it came from what Dr. Perry had told you?
Dr. McClelland. I don't recall whether I told him that or not. I
really don't remember whether I said I had seen the wound myself
or whether I was merely referring to our sort of collective opinion of
it, or whether I told him I had not seen the wound and was merely
going by Dr. Perry's report of it to me. I don't recall now, this far
away in time exactly what I said to him.
Mr. Specter. Dr. McClelland, I want to ask you a few additional
questions, and some of these questions may duplicate questions
which I asked you last Saturday, and the reason for that is, we have
not yet had a chance to transcribe the deposition of last Saturday, so
I do not have before me the questions I asked you at that time and
the answers you gave, and since last Saturday I have taken the
depositions of many, many doctors on the same topics, so it is not
possible for me to be absolutely certain of the specific questions
which I asked you at that time, but permit me to ask you one or
several more questions on the subject.
First, how many bullets do you think were involved in inflicting
the wounds on President Kennedy which you observed?
Dr. McClelland. At the present time, you mean, or at the
immediate moment?
Mr. Specter. Well, take the immediate moment and then the
present time.
Dr. McClelland. At the moment, of course, it was our impression
before we had any other information from any other source at all,
when we were just confronted with the acute emergency, the brief
thoughts that ran through our minds were that this was one bullet,
that perhaps entered through the front of the neck and then in some
peculiar fashion which we really had, as I mentioned the other day,
to strain to explain to ourselves, had coursed up the front of the
vertebra and into the base of the skull and out the rear of the skull.
This would have been a very circuitous route for the bullet to
have made, so that when we did find later on what the
circumstances were surrounding the assassination, this was much
more readily explainable to ourselves that the two wounds were
made by two separate bullets.
Mr. Specter. And what is your view or opinion today as to how
many bullets inflicted the injuries of President Kennedy?
Dr. McClelland. Two.
Mr. Specter. Now, what would be the reason for your changing
your opinion in that respect?
Dr. McClelland. Oh, just simply the later reports that we heard
from all sources, of all the circumstances surrounding the
assassination. Certainly no further first-hand information came to me
and made me change my mind in that regard.
Mr. Specter. Dr. McClelland, let me ask you to assume a few
additional facts, and based on a hypothetical situation which I will
put to you and I'll ask you for an opinion.
Assume, if you will, that President Kennedy was shot on the
upper right posterior thorax just above the upper border of the
scapula at a point 14 cm. from the tip of the right acromion process
and 14 cm. below a tip of the right mastoid process, assume further
that that wound of entry was caused by a 6.5-mm. missile shot out
of a rifle having a muzzle velocity of approximately 2,000 feet per
second, being located 160 to 250 feet away from President Kennedy,
that the bullet entered on the point that I described on the
President's back, passed between two strap muscles on the posterior
aspect of the President's body and moved through the fascial
channel without violating the pleura cavity, and exited in the midline
lower third anterior portion of the President's neck, would the hole
which Dr. Perry described to you on the front side of the President's
neck be consistent with the hole which such a bullet might make in
such a trajectory through the President's body?
Dr. McClelland. Yes; I think so.
Mr. Specter. And what would your reasoning be for thinking that
that would be a possible hole of exit on those factors as I have
outlined them to you?
Dr. McClelland. Well, I think my reasoning would be basically that
the missile was traveling mainly through soft tissue, rather than
exploding from a bony chamber and that by the time it reached the
neck that it had already lost, because of the distance from which it
was fired, even though the muzzle velocity was as you stated—
would have already lost a good deal of its initial velocity and kinetic
strength and therefore would have perhaps made, particularly, if it
were a fragment of the bullet as bullets do sometimes fragment,
could have made a small hole like this in exiting. It certainly could
have done that.
Mr. Specter. What would have happened then to the other
portion of the bullet if it had fragmented?
Dr. McClelland. It might have been left along, or portions of it
along the missile track—sometimes will be left scattered up and
down this. Other fragments will maybe scatter in the wound and
sometimes there will be multiple fragments and sometimes maybe
only a small fragment out of the main bullet, sometimes a bullet will
split in half—this is extremely difficult for me to say just what would
happen in a case like that.
Mr. Specter. Well, assuming this situation—that the bullet did not
fragment, because the autopsy report shows no fragmentation, that
is, it cannot show the absence of fragmentation, but we do know
that there were no bullets left in the body at any point, so that no
fragment is left in.
Dr. McClelland. I think even then you could make the statement
that this wound could have resulted from this type bullet fired
through this particular mass of soft tissue, losing that much velocity
before it exited from the body. Where you would expect to see this
really great hole that is left behind would be, for instance, from a
very high velocity missile fired at close range with a heavy caliber
bullet, such as a .45 pistol fired at close range, which would make a
small entrance hole, relatively, and particularly if it entered some
portion of the anatomy such as the head, where there was a sudden
change in density from the brain to the skull cavity, as it entered. As
it left the body, it would still have a great deal of force behind it and
would blow up a large segment of tissue as it exited. But I don't
think the bullet of this nature fired from that distance and going
through this large area of homogenous soft tissue would necessarily
make the usual kind of exit wound like I just described, with a close
range high velocity heavy caliber bullet.
This is why it would be difficult to say with certainty as has been
implied in some newspaper articles that quoted me, that you could
tell for sure that this was an entrance or an exit wound. I think this
was blown up a good deal.
Mr. Specter. Dr. McClelland, why wasn't the President's body
turned over?
Dr. McClelland. The President's body was not turned over
because the initial things that were done as in all such cases of
extreme emergency are to first establish an airway and second, to
stop hemorrhage and replace blood, so that these were the initial
things that were carried out immediately without taking time to do a
very thorough physical examination, which of course would have
required that these other emergency measures not be done
immediately.
Mr. Specter. Did you make any examination of the President's
back at all?
Dr. McClelland. No.
Mr. Specter. Was any examination of the President's back made
to your knowledge?
Dr. McClelland. Not here—no.
Mr. Specter. Do you have anything to add which you think might
be helpful in any way to the Commission?
Dr. McClelland. No; I think not except again to emphasize
perhaps that some of our statements to the press about the nature
of the wound may have been misleading, possibly—probably
because of our fault in telling it in such a way that they
misinterpreted our certainty of being able to tell entrance from exit
wounds, which as we say, we generally can make an educated guess
about these things but cannot be certain about them. I think they
attributed too much certainty to us about that.
Mr. Specter. Now, have you talked to anyone from the Federal
Government about this matter since I took your deposition last
Saturday?
Dr. McClelland. No.
Mr. Specter. And did you and I chat for a moment or two with my
showing you this translation of "L' Express" prior to the time we
went on the record here?
Dr. McClelland. Yes.
Mr. Specter. And is the information which you gave to me in
response to my questions the same that we put on the record here?
Dr. McClelland. To the best of my knowledge—yes.
Mr. Specter. Thank you very much, Dr. McClelland.
Dr. McClelland. All right. Thank you.
TESTIMONY OF DR. CHARLES
RUFUS BAXTER
The testimony of Dr. Charles Rufus Baxter was taken at 11:15
a.m., on March 24, 1964, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Tex.,
by Mr. Arlen Specter, assistant counsel of the President's
Commission.
Mr. Specter. May the record show that Dr. Charles Baxter is
present in response to a letter requesting him to appear and give his
deposition. For the record I shall state that the President's
Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy is
investigating all facets of the shooting, including the medical
treatment performed on President Kennedy.
Dr. Baxter has been asked to give a deposition on his
participation in connection with the care and medical treatment of
President Kennedy, and with that statement of purpose, would you
please stand up, Dr. Baxter, and raise your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear the testimony you give before the
President's Commission in the course of this deposition proceeding
will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help
you God?
Dr. Baxter. I do.
Mr. Specter. Would you state your full name, please?
Dr. Baxter. Charles Rufus Baxter.
Mr. Specter. What is your profession, sir?
Dr. Baxter. I am a medical doctor of surgery, general surgeon.
Mr. Specter. Will you outline briefly your educational background?
Dr. Baxter. University of Texas—1948 through 1950.
Southwestern Medical School, 1950 through 1954, 1955 straight
medicine internship, 1956 medicine residency—internal medicine
residency. 1956 through 1958, surgical research at Brooke Army
Medical Center, 1958 through 1964—surgical residency, and 1964
through the present—this is 1964, I got out of the Army—in 1958,
1958 through 1962—surgery residency, and 1962 until now,
assistant professor of surgery.
Mr. Specter. And are you board certified, Doctor?
Dr. Baxter. Yes.
Mr. Specter. And what boards have you passed?
Dr. Baxter. The American Board of Surgeons.
Mr. Specter. And what year were you so certified?
Dr. Baxter. 1963.
Mr. Specter. And what is your specific title at the medical school?
Dr. Baxter. Assistant professor of surgery.
Mr. Specter. Did you have occasion to aid in the treatment of
President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital?
Dr. Baxter. Yes.
Mr. Specter. And will you outline briefly the circumstances
surrounding your being called to render such assistance?
Dr. Baxter. I was conducting the student health service in the
hours of 12 to 1 and was contacted there by the supervisor of the
emergency room, who told me that the President was on the way to
the emergency room, having been shot.
I went on a dead run to the emergency room as fast as I could
and it took me about 3 or 4 minutes to get there.
Mr. Specter. Approximately what time did you arrive at the
emergency room?
Dr. Baxter. I think it was 12:40—thereabouts.
Mr. Specter. And who was present at that time?
Dr. Baxter. Dr. Carrico and Dr. Jones and Dr. Jenkins—several
nurses.
Mr. Specter. Can you identify the nurses?
Dr. Baxter. Yes; Mrs. Nelson—and who else? There were two or
three others whose names—Miss Henchliffe was there.
Mr. Specter. Miss Bowron?
Dr. Baxter. Who?
Mr. Specter. Was Miss Bowron there?
Dr. Baxter. Yes; I believe so.
Mr. Specter. Were any other nurses there?
Dr. Baxter. One or two more, but I'm not sure of their names.
Mr. Specter. Can you identify any other doctors who were there
at that time?
Dr. Baxter. Oh, let's see—I'm not sure whether the others came
before or after I did. There was Crenshaw, Peters, and Kemp Clark,
Dr. Bashour finally came. I believe Jackie Hunt—yes—she was, I
believe she was the anesthesiologist who came.
Mr. Specter. Was Dr. Don Curtis there?
Dr. Baxter. I'm not sure—I just don't remember.
Mr. Specter. When you arrived, what did you observe as to the
condition of the President?
Dr. Baxter. He was very obviously in extremis. There was a large
gaping wound in the skull which was covered at that time with
blood, and its extent was not immediately determined. His eyes were
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