Towards Network Operations in the Tampere Region

The City of Tampere did their traffic management strategy for the year 2013 in 2007. After that there has been a lot that has happened. Many of the leading projects of that plan has been executed. In addition, the national intelligent transportation systems (ITS) strategy by Ministry of Transport and communication and European ITS Action Plan has been published. These mentioned strategies control the measures for the implementation and introduces quotes on a lot of tasks and responsibilities to urban areas nationwide and in the European level. For these reasons it was time to update the traffic management and ITS strategy for the Tampere region. The City of Tampere and the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment in the region have updated their traffic management strategy for the year 2020. The new strategy highlights the role of active traffic management and operation, which helps authorities to ensure the predictability and reliability of the transport system in all conditions. In the future, the separate systems in public transport and road traffic form one large ITS entity. The presentation shows an example how a medium-sized European city can take the advantage of intelligent public transport management, traffic lights operations, guidance of traffic flow with variable message signs (VMS’s) and variable speed limits, and how all operations are organized in shared a traffic management center (TMC). The presentation also shows, how the Tampere Region plans to utilize the possibilities of cooperative systems.