MUNICH COMFORT EVALUATION METHODOLOGY AND INTEGRATION OF URBAN AND REGIONAL TRAFFIC CONTROL

Munich COMFORT is a pilot project for advanced transport telematics (ATT) in the Greater Munich Area, the concept of which has been developed by traffic experts from all relevant institutions in charge of or involved in transportation in Munich. The basic idea behind the project is to approach the traffic problems by an integrated concept, considering the interaction of public transport and car traffic as well as the mutual effects between the city and its region and operating existing traffic information and control systems together with new ATT systems within an intelligent network. In the northern motorway network of Munich, which is part of the Munich COMFORT test-site, a new traffic control system including speed control, hazard warning, and dynamic rerouting has been working since 1992. The infrastructure of this system, together with additional installations in the urban area, serve as a basis for a research project to integrate urban and regional traffic control. For this, new rerouting possibilities as well as the traffic situation in the adjacent urban road network will be considererd. Algorithms have been developed and are currently being tested for the analysis of the urban traffic situation due to changes in the routing recommendations provided by the motorway systems and for the evaluation of the traffic situation for the alternative route by criteria such as intersection capacity, traffic efficiency, air and noise pollution, and traffic safety. The presentation will give a general overview about the ATT systems of Munich COMFORT and will focus on the integration of urban and regional traffic control.