ITS

4 TRAFIK & VEJE • 2015 JANUAR

Holland har et ry om at være foregangsland, når det gælder udvikling og implementering af intelligente transportsystemer (ITS). Artiklen giver et overblik over nogle af de væsentlige trends inden for ITS og såkaldt Smart Mobility, dvs. intelligente og bæredygtige mobilitetsløsninger, med fokus på byområder. Hvordan har ITS bidraget til at løse trafikale problemer? Hvilke trends gør sig aktuelt gældende? Og ikke mindst: Hvilke udfordringer ses der ift. realisering af effektiv og samtidig bæredygtig mobilitet i de hollandske byer?

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and Smart mobility in

the Netherlands

Over the last decades we have gained

a lot of experience with Traffic Manage-

ment and ITS in the Netherlands. The

particular traffic solutions which the Neth-

erlands have chosen to implement have

proven to be effective in achieving more

accessible societies, higher levels of com-

munity safety and better quality of life in

and between cities. With the recent devel-

opments in technology we are at the start

of a new generation of more personal-

ized traffic management, often labelled as

and smarter use of technology in the future.

The questions we must ask are: █ What options are currently available to

us and how can they contribute to so-

cial objectives we have? █ What is needed for positive collabora-

tion between government authorities

and the private sector in the long term?

Although we have no direct answers here

there are a few emerging trends that are

worth examining.

Trafikteknisk konsulent

Hans de Man, Grontmij N.V.

hans.deman@grontmij.nl

Konsulent Martijn van Rij,

Grontmij N.V.

martijn.vanrij@grontmij.nl

Chefkonsulent Ute Stemmann,

Grontmij A/S

uts@grontmij.dk

IntroductionConstantly evolving developments in tech-

nology present opportunities to solve the

social problems arising from the traffic and

transport sector. Recent years have seen

many advances in this area and there are

plenty more opportunities for improved

Figure 1: Development of methods of ITS (Source: Beleidskader benutten 2008, Ministry of

Infrastructure and Environment).

TRAFIK & VEJE • 2015 JANUAR 5

ITS is part of a total package of measuresBefore we elaborate further on the trends,

first a few conclusions regarding the con-

tribution of ITS to getting lower total delay

hours and a higher sustainability score are

presented: Figure 2 shows that the total

delay on the national highways is influ-

enced by several factors.

The graph depicts the various variables

affecting the total delay and the extent as a

percentage to which they affect those. We

can see that use of dynamic lanes (9: lanes

which are only open during peak hours)

and ITS have a share of 47% of the total

influence of delay hours. Variables outside

our control, which can have a positive ef-

fect on delay hours, are working from home

(flex-working), higher fuel prices and lower

maximum speeds including enforcement.

How ITS improves traffic flowsThere are a lot of ITS projects, which have

led to improved traffic flow and sustain-

ability outcomes. Two examples (which

are described below) are the Efteling’ ITS

plan and the “Groene Golf Team” traffic fine

tuning program. They show how well even

small ITS projects and minor optimization

of existing systems can led to dramatically

improved traffic flow outcomes.

opportunities for improving traffic flow

through the network as a whole;

4. Future modes of transport - Eventually

autonomous vehicles advanced driver

assistance systems (ADAS) to maxi-

mize and fully exploit the road capacity.

While the network-wide approach is

currently at its peak, new policies and strat-

egies are pushing us toward the 3rd gener-

ation (cooperative). Later in this article we

will give examples of recent projects.

Smart Mobility. Smart Mobility is the term

used to describe the recent trend in the use

of data from a variety of sources to provide

information and guide individual road users

before and during their trip. In this article

we look at the current state of play and the

emerging trends in ITS and Smart Mobil-

ity in the Netherlands and the effects these

have or may have in the future.

Start of a new generation of systemsCurrently our industry is on the cusp of

the introduction of a new generation of

exciting technology which offers us many

opportunities for the development of ITS

systems and improved traffic management

techniques. Through the implementation of

this new generation of technology we aim

to contribute to creating better traffic flows

through our networks.

Figure 1 depicts several generations

(waves) of the development of ITS:

1. Local Traffic Management - Stand-

alone roadside measures to address

local problems e.g. traffic signals and

ramp metering;

2. Network Wide - Coordinated network

wide approach that uses several road-

side measures (like variable message

signs and ramp metering systems) to

activate a regional control plan;

3. Cooperative (or Smart Mobility) based

on the use of cooperative systems,

Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-

infrastructure communication offers

Figure 3: KPI’s (Source: Optimising Use of Intelligent Mobility, 2014, Ministry of Infrastruc-

ture and Environment).

Figure 2: Causes of total delay hours 2001-2012 (Source: Mobility Study 2012, KIM 2013).

6 TRAFIK & VEJE • 2015 JANUAR

The Efteling’ project involved creating

an ITS traffic control plan to manage the

daily peak in the volume of traffic entering

the Efteling’ amusement park (over 4 mil-

lion visitors per year).

The traffic control plan describes the

traffic scenarios and the points at which

these scenarios will activate different ITS

measures. The package consists of travel

information (pre-trip and on-trip), traffic

management and incident management.

The traffic control plan delivered improved

traffic flow, less gridlocked junctions and

this in turn reduced pollution from traffic.

A good performance maintenance

(optimising) of traffic signals normally

also forms part of a traffic management

concept. A special taskforce called ‘Het

Groene Golf team’ (Green Wave Team)

have done a very good job throughout the

Netherlands in periodically fine-tuning the

settings of traffic signals. It has turned out

that the benefits of these initiatives in the

beginning were 20 times greater than the

costs of the fine-tuning itself.

Additionally, a 2013 study concluded

that if air pollution problems are linked to

areas with heavy vehicle road congestion

issues, the pollution can be alleviated by

solving the congestion issues (Beter Be-

nutten, 2013)’.

Figure 3 shows the key performance in-

dicators (KPI’s) for measuring performance

on social issues. The last column in the ta-

ble shows the results of several measures,

including ITS. The conclusion which can

be drawn from this data set is many of the

ITS measures have a positive effect on the

quality of the (urban) environment. The aim

is to integrate them as much as possible

into an integrated strategic plan including

all relevant stakeholders.

Policy trends A large proportion of the road network in

the Netherlands has had ITS systems in-

stalled. This has had a positive effect on

traffic flows, safety and environment. How-

ever to make further improvements in this

area we need to improve the quality of the

information and advice about traffic condi-

tions to individual road users (personal and

tailor made advise). Within 10 years we ex-

pect that 60% of the road users and in 20

years time almost all vehicles will be con-

nected (on-line). What is now required and

what has been increasing is the political will

to drive these changes. The Ministry of In-

frastructure in the Netherlands has recently

developed a new strategy in this area: 2013

– 2023 called “Better informed on the road”.

With a demand driven approach stead-

ily becoming the norm the role of the na-

tional road authority in managing traffic will

decrease. Eventually the role of the regu-

lator will become advising and controlling

emergency situations rather than delivering

traffic information on demand. The private

sector will increasingly take over the deliv-

ery of personal route advice to road users.

The end goal is to achieve better coopera-

tion between government and the private

sector to keep measures and information

to road users consistent. To achieve this

cohesive European Standards will need to

be developed in the area as communica-

tion between vehicles and between the ve-

hicles and the infrastructure doesn’t stop at

the border. For the whole system to work

effectively road users from other countries

cannot be excluded from important infor-

mation and vice versa.

The challenge for the upcoming years

is to come to a smart and consistent mix

of information collected and provided by

smartphone, navigation devices and road

side informational systems. The govern-

ment defined six transition paths to pro-

vide direction for this are shown in figure

5 below:

Figure 4: Transition paths in policy program “Better informed on the road”.

TRAFIK & VEJE • 2015 JANUAR 7

Integration of different ITS systemsIn projects like the ‘PraktijkProef Amster-

dam’ and VERDER (Regional Traffic Man-

agement in the centre of Holland) different

ITS systems (within a municipality, but also

from different road authorities) are con-

nected. Two interesting developments have

emerged: the trends DVM Exchange (DVM

= Dynamic Traffic Management in Dutch)

and NMS (Network Managment Systems).

DVM Exchange is a protocol for traffic

management, which is now implemented in

different systems. The protocol works with

‘Traffic Management Services’, which is an

abstract method for describing the desired

measures. Examples are ‘improve the out-

flow’ or ‘add capacity’. By contrast, it re-

mains undecided which system the service

is executed with. The road authority can

select their own system, and replace it with

another system in the future (i.e. providing

a great deal of flexibility as long as the ITS

system supports the standard).

From a traffic management centre it is

now possible to request a traffic manage-

ment measure from another road author-

ity (in another traffic management centre).

Now the national road authority and the

municipality work together in managing the

total road network. It is here that it could

be relevant for the Danish Road Directo-

rate and the City of Copenhagen to look

at solutions employed in Netherlands when

integrating their traffic control in the new

traffic control center (‘trafiktårnet’) in Co-

penhagen.

Network Management Systems (NMS)The application, which makes this pos-

sible, is a Network Management System

(NMS). Different suppliers have one ready.

It mainly is used to activate control plans

(scenario’s) based on triggers (in flow,

speed or travel times). Two Network Man-

agement Systems in different Traffic Man-

agement Centres can work together. How-

ever, it’s necessary that everyone involved

support the goals. Which brings us back to

the necessity for policy integration. ITS is

merely a tool.

The availability of data is crucial in

these kind of developments. The trends

big data, data fusion and traffic monitoring

are offering different techniques to collect

large amounts of traffic data. Using cam-

eras, Bluetooth technology and data from

traffic signals we can have a good overview

of the status of the whole network instead

of only the necessary information for con-

trolling traffic and giving advice regarding

travel times and departure times. Currently

we are looking in ways of combining the

roadside data with floating car data (more

information with fewer data locations, and

additional information).

The role of smartphonesAn important technical development is the

Smartphone. The Smartphone is becom-

ing more and more important in ITS. Every

individual road user can be updated with

travel information. Anywhere and anytime.

Pre-trip or on-trip. A survey conducted in

the Netherlands (2013) on the subject of

on-trip travel information states that 41% is

received by car radio and 24% by naviga-

tional systems. Via Smartphone individual

road users received travel information by

apps (17%) and by the Internet (12%). That

indicates that the Smartphone has already

more influence than dynamic roadside in-

formation signs (14%) This is an important

step for the program “Better informed on

the road”.

A nice example of the implementation

of smart phone technology is the app ‘Eitje

van Utrecht’. It produces actual travel infor-

mation on four alternative routes for indi-

vidual road users using information on local

road works in the municipality of Utrecht. It

provides a prediction of traveling times per

route for the next fifteen minutes based on

a micro simulation model and floating car

data. The creation and implementation of

this app led to improved communication

between the government and road users

the result of which was less congestion. In

this case only car users were involved in

the pilot program, however we think it can

also be at used for other modes of trans-

port such as cycling.

In the ‘PraktijkProef Amsterdam’ two

consortiums built apps (both have > 10.000

users) that give real-time information on

the preferred routes to a personal destina-

tion or a big event. The personal advice is

based on real-time traffic conditions like

congestion, road works and incidents. By

better informing the traffic the regional road

network around Amsterdam is used more

efficient.

Achieving sustainable urban mobilityA famous quote by Fred Kent states that

“if you plan cities for cars and traffic, you

get cars and traffic. If you plan for people

and places, you get people and places”.

Our goal is to enhance the quality of the

urban environment. A Sustainable Urban

Mobility Plan (SUMP ), a concept which is

an important element of the EU climate and

transport politics, aims to create a sustain-

able urban transport system by:

1. Ensuring the accessibility of jobs and

services to all;

2. Improving safety and security;

3. Reducing pollution, greenhouse gas

emissions and energy consumption;

4. Increasing the efficiency and cost-

effectiveness of the transportation of

persons and goods;

5. Enhancing the attractiveness and qual-

ity of the urban environment.

Indeed it can be seen that technical

developments offer us great opportunities.

More and better tools are created to help us

achieve a better quality of (urban) environ-

ment. Our aim is to focus on cost-effective

measures that solve the largest problems.

There is a need to combine SUMP and a

Network Management System to get our

focus right for the future development of

urban mobility in the Netherlands.█

Figure 5: The application ‘Eitje van Utrecht’

on a smartphone.