Interactive Traffic Management for Eco-Efficient Mobility
It’s well known that technology is advancing more rapidly than ever before, and the same is true for the transport sector with new modes of transport such as shared mobility and micro-mobility. Cloud and connectivity are widely used, and travellers uses navigation apps every day both when planning the trip and during it. For example, 3 out of 4 people are using navigation apps to find the best route when they travel; this is a huge opportunity to interact with travellers and achieve an optimised mobility. And nowadays it’s not only the fastest route that matters, it’s mainly the predictability of the travel time. The smart orchestration of mobility is not only an opportunity but a need, to avoid uncoordinated actions that have a negative effect on traffic and safety.
“Predictability of travel time is the key for the improvement of the quality of life, it is more and more important than the old paradigm of the fastest route. For all travellers, like us, to be able to have confidence on reliable travel-time allow us to plan for the activities of our busy life but it is, also, the basic requirement for the successful deployment of the new services such as the MaaS and, later, the automated mobility. “
Gino Franco
Head of Innovation at SWARCO
Traditional traffic management relied on sensors and modelling to understand traffic situations and adapt. With the introduction of new standards, different systems could communicate with each other enabling the possibility for multimodal coordination. Data sharing in the cloud extended this even further, by fusing the data from multiple sources and, now, connected vehicles allows for better monitoring.
The important point is that simply sharing data between systems is not enough. The balance between the objectives of the individuals, and the objectives of the community is needed, in order to maximize the traffic network efficiency. Stakeholders needs to have an understanding and a Common Operational Picture, because in the end, traffic management is a tool for supporting the transport network operations. To do so, actions must be coordinated towards the same objective to ensure the best distribution of the traffic, prevent congestions, minimise pollution and manage unexpected events.
This approach is called Collaborative Interactive Traffic Management, which is the implementation of an ecosystem where mobility becomes predictable, for a better traffic quality. Confidence in a reliable travel time allows travellers to plan their busy lives but is also the basic requirement for the deployment of future services. SWARCO MyCity allows cities to power the collaborative ecosystem by integrating different source of data and use them for adaptive traffic control, by combining data analytics, cloud services and road side equipment in a multimodal environment.
Key elements for the successful deployment are all assets present in the SWARCO DNA and are the combination of:
mastering the most advanced software technology;
long lasting competence on traffic domain;
local presence and understanding of specific needs, because traffic in each city is different and unique.
New implementations can leverage on existing installed base, additional opportunity is also the Traffic Management as a Service approach available through the Cloud.
Here are a few of SWARCO’s many ITS references:
