Projects
Project: PREDICT- Predicting travel times and route choices after incidents
RD&D organisation: The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)/CTR Centre for Traffic Simulation
Most traffic models focus static or dynamic equilibrium at normal traffic conditions. In this project we focus traffic development after an incident and how disturbances can be reduced by traffic information. The first task is to estimate traffic at different times during normal conditions. When an incident occurs we need to estimate the traffic on the roads on that particular day at the time of the incident. The problem is that of estimating dynamic OD matries based on current sensor readings. The further development with regard to the obstacles is simulated with a fast mesoscopic simulator (Mezzo). Effects of traffic information on route choices are estimated in a separate project so that different information strategies can be compared.
Reports:
- "Mesoscopic Simulation Models for Short-Term Prediction", KTH/CTR, okt 2005.
- "A Heuristic for the Estimation of Time-Dependent, Origin-Destination Matrices from Traffic Counts", Linköping University, Department of Science and Technology, okt 2006.
Project INTRO- Intelligents Roads
RD&D organisation: VTI Linköping
INTRO will develop innovative methods to increase the capacity of existing and new transport infrastructure by maximising safety and well being of drivers, passengers, crew and pedestrians. Three main strands of research will be conducted:
Surface safety monitoring:
- Integration and testing of real-time warning systems at network level to achieve a significant decrease in the number of accidents due to "surprise effects" from sudden local changes in weather resulting in low friction and hence skidding.
- Increasing drivers´ attention to low road friction by only a few percent may result in significantly higher reduction of accident rates due to its non-linear relationship.
- Europe's most advanced driving simulator will be used to optimise for driver responses to new types of information.
Traffic and safety monitoring:
- Combination of different sensor data will enable the estimations of entirely new real-time safety parameters and performance indicators to be used in traffic monitoring and early warning systems.
Intelligent pavement and intelligent vehicles:
- Innovative use and combination of new and existing sensor technologies in pavements, bridges and vehicles in order to prevent accidents, enhance traffic flows and significantly extend the lifetimes of existing infrastructure.
- A prolonged lifetime of high capacity roads could thus be obtained using novel methods for early warning detection of deterioration and damage of road surfaces.
Reports: See Website http://intro.fehrl.org
Project: Silvester - Change of departure times and route choices with congestion charging
RD&D organisation: The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)/CTR Centre for Traffic Simulation
The introduction of congestion charges is expected to cause travellers to change their time of departure in order to avoid charges. Congestion will then occur in other places and at other times. This projects seeks to estimate the new equilibrium with regard to both travel times and charges. A survey is planned in order to estimate the willingness to change departure time due to charges and travel times. Traffic is simulated with the new departure times so that routes and travel times can be calculated. The new travel times may affect choice of departure time so that several simulations are needed to estimate the new equilibrium.
Reports:
- Article about project Silvester "Methodological Issues in the Implementation of a Departure Time Choice Application", sept 2007.
Project Development of the VTI RuTSim rural traffic model
RD&D organisation: VTI Linköping
The development of the VTI rural road traffic simulation model started in the mid 1970's. Over the years large efforts have been made to improve the model. The latest development, carried through during 2003 and 2004, has resulted in a to a large extent new simulation model. The new model, RuTSim, has the ability to simulate the traffic on all of the common rural road types in Sweden, including 2+1-roads. The development has also been part of a licentiate thesis work.
The VTI rural road simulation model has been used for analysis of road designs and traffic management strategies in rural road environments. Most simulation studies have been performed by VTI by order of the Swedish Road Adminstration. The new model's GUI and extended applicability will enable a much wider use of the model among consultants and researchers in road planning, road design, road safety, ITS and environmental impact analysis. It is for this reason essential that the model is made available for the traffic analysis community.
A series of necessary model improvements where identified during the latest model development. The aim of this project is to complete these required steps for the RuTSim model to become a useful and widely used tool for rural road traffic analysis.
Reports:
- "A Traffic Simulation Modeling Framework for Rural Highways", Linköping University, Departement of Science and Technology, LiU-tek-Lic-2005:60.
- "Microscopic Trafic Simulation, Models: Calibration, Validation and Computation", Linköping University, Department of Science and Technology, febr 2006.
- "Rural Highway Design Analysis through Traffic Micro-Simulation", VTI and Linköping University, Departement of Science and Technology, march 2006.
Project: HeavyRoute - Intelligent Route Guidance for Heavy Vehicles RD&D organisation: VTI Linköping
The volume of freight transport on roads has grown steadily over the years and is expected to increase significantly over the next decade. From the point of view of a road operator, this will lead to accelerated damage to bridges and pavement fatigue as well as creating major traffic management problems to maintain safety and reduce congestion. For truck operators, there are the combined challenges of reducing ever increasing fuel costs, maximising efficiency and profitability whilst maintaining safety. For trhe truck drivers, they have the additional tasks of ensuring compliance with drivers's working hours regulations and finding appropriate, safe and secure overnight rest areas.
Activities in HeavyRoute will be focussed on the following objectives:
System conception and user requirements
- Assessment of state-of the-art in fleet management and HGV guidance systems/services.
- Identifying stakeholder and user requirements on an advanced HGV management and route guidance system.
- Identifying factors that influence the "route optimization".
- Deriving a system architecture concept.
Databases and vehicle/infrastructure interaction models
- Inventory of available static, periodic and dynamic road, bridge and trafic data in national databases
- Inventory of available effect models for deriving the "optimum" route and reducing impacts on the infrastructures.
Route guidance and driving support
- Design and dvelopment of innovative route guidance and driver support applications for HGVs based on database contents and effect models.
Traffic simulation and effects of management strategies
- Traffic simulation and assessment of possible effects and future scenarios from traffic management solutions.
- Simulation of traffic flows due to different management strategies.
See Website: http://www.heavyroute.fehrl.org/
Project: Well-functioning collaborative and business models between SNRA and external ITS actors.
RD&D organisation: WSP Analysis & trategy
Project: Development of simulation tools that can be used for evaluation of driver assistance systems
RD&D organisation: Linköping University, Department of Science and Technology and VTI Linköping
New systems, services and products are continuously developed to improve capacity, safety and the environmental impact of the road traffic system. Examples include different types of driver assistance systems, traffic information systems and systems for more efficient traffic management and control strategies. Traffic models based on micro-simulation are becoming increasingly important in order to analyze and evaluate the effects of these ITS applications.
The overall aim of this project is to contribute to the development of simulation tools that can be used for evaluation of driver assistance systems, i.e. ITS-applications aimed at individual drivers or vehicles and where individual driver/vehicle behavior is crucial for the functionality of the traffic system. More specific, the project aim is to develop an environment in which a combination of a driving simulator and traffic simulation models can be used to study both behavioral aspects of ITS-applications and the resulting effects on the traffic system. This project consists of two subprojects. One focuses on the development of simulation models of rural traffic including vehicles equipped with or affeted by driver assistance systems. The other project focuses on the development of traffic simulation models to simulate surrounding traffic for a driving simulator.
Project: FRAM - Handheld computer-based travel aid for disabled and elderly persons
RD&D organisation: The Teknikdalen Foundation
The travel aid FRAM (Flexible Real-time Assistance for Moving) will increase the quality of life and make it easier for disabled and elderly persons to travel and cope out in the community. The travel aid is mainly aimed at people with cognitive disabilities, however; those with sight, motor activity, hearing and speech disabilities are also expected to be able to use the device.
With the travel aid, one should be able to independently plan and conduct private, educational and work-related journeys from door to door, by making use of information about services and decision-making support before and during a journey. This could, for example, be the need for information about transportation services or a regular transfer between two places. It is also about easing the handling of information, planning, booking and payment, as well as navigation. The user should be able to experience a sence of security as certain safety functions are being developed for the system. The concept of the "alarm" can have various interpretations: from ringing up someone to communicate, to hailing the emergency services in a critical situation.
The access to information from a local road database (LV) with the network of roads, cycle paths and footpaths is of vital importance for the FRAM project. FRAM will be taking advantage of various service databases which will be created within the framework of the development work for the LV database for Stockholm City (map module, navigation module, reporting module, etc.).
During the evaluation phase working prototypes of the aid will be tested and appraised for different target groups. The concluding demonstration stage involves a full scale trial with refined travel aid and IT services in the urban environment.
FRAM will be presented at the ITS World Congress in Stockholm in september 2009.
FRAM is a development partner in the cooperative project e-Adept within the areas of personal navigation, travel planning and safety.
Reports: See Website http://www.eadept.se/
Project: STEGLITS (Stepwise improvement of Pre-and Post-Evaluations of ITS RD&D organisation: Movea Trafikkonsult AB
The aim of the project is to integrate several tools for assessing the effects of ITS in a common system. Extensive research has been carried out in Sweden and internationally which should be utilised in the planning process. It is now natural to tie up all this effort to a guidebook for estimation of effects of ITS as well ex-ante (appraisals) and ex-post (evaluations).
Major work in the project:
- Develop a "Best Practice Guide" for the evaluation of ITS based on the VIKING Evaluation Guidelines, IDAS socio-economical methodology and the CONTRAM dynamic traffic assignment model.
- Develop methodology to combine results from more than one traffic model e.g. EMME/2 and CONTRAM as basis for Cost-Benefit Analysis.
- Develop methodology to calculate impacts of several ITS applications is an ITS scenario.
- Develop useful examples containing:
- Use of IDAS to analyse an ITS scenario in a City region before implementation (ex-ante).
- Use of EMME/2 and CONTRAM as a basis and input to IDAS.
- Use of PLUTO to catch the most important impacts in the evaluation of a deployment of an ITS application (ex-post).
- Use of TEMPO reporting templates to feed back results to the Swedish ITS Catalogue of Impact.
Project: ITS-support for combined transport solutions RD&D organisation: IT research institute Viktoria AB, Department of Logistics and Transport at Chalmers and Dalarna University
Emerging ubiquitous technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) hold the promise of closing some of the information gaps in the supply chain, especially in transport and logistics. "ITS-support for combined transport solutions" is a research project addressing the issue of how transports can be made more efficient, flexible, and secure by help of advanced information technology support. The chief objective of this project is to develop an information infrastructure that supports innovative services for dynamic information management in the context of multimodal transports. Using embedded technology and a decentralized architecture, prerequisites for so called "intelligent goods" will be explored. This project will be conducted as a collaborative effort where vendors of IT-systems collaborate with researchers and transport industry representatives.
Project: Driver support system in school transport - a way to increase safety and security for children RD&D organisation: VTI Linköping
Between 1994 and 2001 about 361 children in Sweden were injured or killed in a total of 256 crashes connected to school transport. The most frequent occurence in the 256 crashes was that children had walked or run out on the road at the back of the bus (30%), the second most frequent occurrence was that children had walked or run out on the road at the front of the bus (21%), the third most frequent occurrence was that children were caught between the bus and a permanent object or were hit at the bus stop (13%).
From a "door-to-door" point if view of travel measures can be taken in many ways and against all of the included elements in a trip, for example choice of a safe bus stop, marking of bus stops, marking of vehicles. driver support systems, education of drivers, education of school children using school transport. This project proposal focuses on a driver support measure.
In order to find a measure that increases the safety of children in connection with school transport a driver support system with this focus will be tested. The driver support system will be based on existing systems that are integrated. The aim is to create a driver support system that in a systematic and natural way supports the driver so that he or she knows the route of the school transport, the location of the bus stops used by the school transport, who is expected to embark at each stop, inform passing vehicles that the bus is a school transport, communicate with the children, prevent children from passing the road when and where it is not safe.
The systems that are suggested to be integrated thus includes both systems for route planning, bus stop description, special information about children, systems for communication with passengers (children), but also with passing traffic.
Project: ICT for cargo on the road RD&D organisation: Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH)
Unfortunately, the impact of ICT in road transport has been limited. There are a number of potential reasons for this: lack of knowledge, no trust in the technology, missing standards, etc. The development of tools and technologies, such as, fleet management, GNSS, in-vehicle telematics platforms and concepts of the type "intelligent freight" are developments which can change the situation to promote the use of ICT. Further, there are applications based on the interest of public authorities, such as road user charging systems for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) under development which may support the development. The project "Arena" aims at developing a road user charging system for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in Sweden. Such a system may constitute the basis for better ICT support, mainly through its telematics and ability to provide vehicle positions.
This project, "ICT for cargo on the road" is based on the projects: "Mobila nätverk i logistikkedjor, "Mobile pipelines", "Integrated production and transport planning", Cooperation will take place with the projects: "Arena", "Test Site Sweden", "ITS-lösningar som stöd för hantering av tung trafik med tonvikt på trafik till och från hamnar och andra omlastningsställen" and relevant EC-financed projects such as Freightwise. The project aims at studying how "public" applications, such as road user charging system for Heavy Goods Vehicles can be integrated with other applications for HGV's and to develop a prototype to be displayed at the World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems - 2009. An interesting area is safe transports for dangerous goods and another is to show how relevant ICT can increase efficiency of transports. An expected result of the project is a conceptual solution on how ICT connected to systems like road user charging systems can increase efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and/or increase safety for cargo transport on road.
See Website: http://www.bth.se/tek/mobil_it
Project: Real-time traffic and travel information - state-of-the-art, technology trends, innovations and deployment R&D organisation: Chalmers Design
The project will result in a state-of-the-art report and a technology foresight for the application area "real-time traffic and travel information". One objective is to establish a reliable and as complete as possible knowledge base for R&D activities in the area linked to the Swedish ITS Post Graduate School. The objective is to establish the current situation regarding system solutions, functions and services and to identify new system concepts and technology trends which together will be implemented in products and services to reach the "market" within 5-10 years.
The work will address two qualitatively different fields, real-time traffic information and real-time travel information (for travellers and passengers). However, both fields make use of more or less the same channels and devices for the information transfer. The work on technology trends will therefore have a specific focus on what is available and what can be expected in the area of "nomadic devices", i.e. smart phones, PDAs, GNSS-systems, etc.. The analyses made will be based on such trends in the ICT area, which might have an influence, directly and/or indirectly, on the application areas addressed.
Project: DYMOBUS - Dynamic modelling of bus traffic mixed with car traffic RD&D organisation: The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)/CTR Centre for Traffic Simulation
Increasing congestion for route buses in mixed trafic has lead to lower speeds and caused increasing delays. On the other hand car traffic is disturbed by signal priorities for buses, reserved bus lanes and stopping. Traditionally public transport and general traffic are studied in separate organisations using different models not taking into account the interactions between modes.
Within this project we develop the mesoscopic traffic model MEZZO to treat route services, signal priorities and stopping influenced by delays. The aim is to analyze the collective effects on both bus and car traffic of infrastructure design and travel control strategies. Using the integrated model it is intended to increase the accessibility of public transport by shorter travel times, better adherence to time-tables and better information at disturbances.
