Urban traffic management has as main task to keep the traffic flowing in the city’s road network. In order to perform the work optimally, accurate information on the current traffic situation and prediction on the future traffic is needed, so that they can take appropriate decisions and inform travellers on problems occurring at the city road network. A wide range of data is available, e.g. from sensors embedded in the road network or installed at the road side, from traffic cameras, from vehicles (floating car data), and from social networks.
Traffic policies are changing cities to become more pedestrian, cycling and public-transport friendly, which put challenges to traffic management to keep traffic congestion minimal and to inform both vehicle drivers, other road users and public transport passengers on the traffic situation and potential disruptions.
The pilot is located in the city of Tampere in Finland, which is the largest inland city in the Nordic countries. Major infrastructure works are ongoing in Tampere, such as the construction of the tram network and the overarching of the railroad near the main railway station.
The first objective in the Tampere pilot is to provide tools for urban traffic management. This is performed by increasing the number of data sources, such as traffic cameras, social media, and data sources on roadworks, as well as integrating and analysing data.
The second objective is to provide tools for informing drivers and public transport users regarding traffic status and traffic disruptions.
The third objective is to improve urban logistics, by providing tools to improve the access of goods delivery vehicles to parking places. For this purpose a reservation system for selected parking places for goods delivery will be deployed and piloted.