GCSE ICT Coursework Task Two – Traffic Lights

Analyse

Mr Simpson has called me in to devise, if feasible, a system that will work out the estimated times for cars to come at certain times, the amount of cars likely to come past in a period of time and how many cars should be let through in that same period of time in order to prevent serious traffic jams. Also I will need to take into account the average length of a car and the average amount of space that each driver leaves between themselves and the next car. This will be collected into a spreadsheet table and will be collected from various locations across the country where temporary traffic lights are installed and from car specifications. This will need to be sorted into price ranges and assumptions based upon the types of cars that a particular type of person who will be travelling at a particular time. Eg a well paid computer technician would have an expensive car and would be travelling in to work at a particular time in order to get into the city in time. Therefore at a particular time there will be a particular type, and therefore length, of car on the road.

Design

In order to produce this I will need a table(s) displaying the number of cars passing in a set period, the average number of cars passing in a set period, an estimated average length of car, the extreme lengths of car and the amount of time that the traffic light should be: a) red and b) green. All figures will need to be estimated.

I intend to use assumed data and formulae to produce a three day model showing the queue on both sides of a set of roadworks. To highlight important formulae, I will make them bold and surround them with an eye-catching, red border. In addition, to make the system more user-friendly, I will put comments into cells so that the user may see exactly what must be entered into each cell.