Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling, usually abbreviated to MIDAS, is a distributed network of traffic sensors, mainly inductive loops, which are designed to set variable message signs and advisory speed limits with little human intervention. On the M25 and M42 motorways, the MIDAS helps set mandatory variable speed limit signs as part of the controlled motorway scheme.
It is installed on several sections of the United Kingdom's busiest motorways, such as the congested western stretch of the M25 motorway and much of the M60 motorway around Manchester, the Birmingham box (M6, M5 and M42) and the system has successfully reduced accidents. Additionally, the system is installed on parts of the non-motorway trunk road network including the A14.
The system replaced the Automatic Incident Detection (AID) system which was trialled in 1989 on an 83 kilometres (52 mi) section of the M1 motorway. MIDAS was first installed on the M25 in 1997, after this section already had the variable speed limit.
By March 2006, the Highways Agency aims to have MIDAS installed on more than 910 kilometres (565 mi) of the English motorway network.
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