Concept of A Decentralised Platform for Regional Traffic Management

This paper describes a new approach to regional traffic management that features a decentralized network, rather than the traffic management centers that are used in large metropolitan areas. The authors describe the national research project ‘MOSAIQUE’, in which several partners of public administrations, public transport companies, industry and scientific research institutions are working together to develop and implement a regional traffic management network in Central Germany. The network extends over three Federal states (Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia) and covers an area of about 7,400 square kilometers. Nearly two million people live in the region, the majority in the cities of Leipzig and Halle. The authors focus on the importance of data collection and data quality in any strategy of traffic management, noting that access to data can be provided via web-based services. The transportation data available can be useful to a variety of users: commuters who want to plan their daily travel to work, professionals from the traffic sector who need detailed information to carry out their daily work, and commercial drivers who want to get up-to-date traffic information, or additional advice like the headroom of bridges and tunnels. The authors conclude by emphasizing the importance of cooperation by all stakeholders in the ongoing efforts to create and maintain a regional traffic management project. The bundling of resources, the exchange of know-how by the actors in the network and the continuous feedback from road users will considerably improve the quality and quantity of traffic information.