Working together is showing guts

 

Collaborate. It seems so simple and we often are keen on seeing benefits. But actually doing it, still requires some guts. In the European project SOCRATES^2.0, eleven public and private organisations have been challenged to try different ways of working together to realise smart traffic and navigation services. Consortium partners HERE, Technolution, BMW Group and the city of Copenhagen will unveil a glimpse of what’s coming up in 2019 in SOCRATES^2.0 during a demonstration at the ITS World Congress in Copenhagen.
 

Demonstration at ITS World Congress Copenhagen

In stands E-085 (Technolution/Copenhagen) and E-074 (HERE/BMW Group)  we show in a demo how cooperation between public and private organisations can improve end user services as well as contribute to traffic management objectives by considering additional information and strategies from the traffic management. One example are strategic routes which can be exchanged between a traffic management center and a service provider like BMW Group. A strategic route is a route where a traffic management center would like to push traffic to or to keep traffic away from due to traffic management. This happens for example in case of incident where the city knows what alternative corridors should be used. They are called strategic routes and service providers are informed about not only the incident, but also the strategic routes as part of a  traffic management measure. Based on the shared strategic information the BMW Group provides the road user a service considering both: his individual trip preferences and specific traffic and environmental boundaries of a city. A win-win-win situation for road users, traffic authorities and service providers alike. SOCRATES^2.0 enables the development of these concepts and provides the necessary techniques.
 

What’s new in SOCRATES^2.0?

SOCRATES^2.0 works as much as possible with existing techniques to realise smart traffic services and traffic management. So, what's new? In order to create these new and better services for road users, international service providers, car manufacturers, ITS companies and road authorities should cooperate and share information. The partners in SOCRATES^2.0 are defining and experiencing sustainable public-private cooperation and business cases in traffic management. And this is an important step in the direction of implementation of smart mobility services.

 

4 types f services

The SOCRATES^2.0 partners have selected and developed 4 types of services, which will be tested by 9,000 users in 4 cities in 2019. These services include smart navigation advice (for example in case of events), actual speed and lane advice and local warnings, for example on environmental zones and road works.

 

Smart routing in case of events

Imagine the situation of an event at the Bella Center in Copenhagen. This will cause high traffic demand on the roads in its proximity. There are road users who wouldn’t  visit the event but whose shortest route towards a destination crosses routes of visitors of the event.

Based on service provider’s algorithms and the road authority expertise, potential capacity bottlenecks along the network are identified. Also, the road authority has deemed certain roads less desirable, since there is a pollution problem on certain parts of the route. Several road users want to go/be guided to the same destination. Based on shared data (visitors, parking information, etc.) the road users receive smart route (guidance) for their destination and/or to the most optimal parking location.

 

How does it work behind the scenes?

To be able to do that, you need to exchange and integrate relevant available information from road authorities, service providers and road users. How does it work behind the scenes? The SOCRATES^2.0 partners have explored the options of an intermediary role for exchange of information. The service providers can query the intermediary for relevant information in order to enhance individual route advices in form of a “smart route”. In case of smart routing and destination, an intermediary exchanges information about traffic demand (from service providers) and network supply (from road authorities).The creation of a complete and consistent picture of the current and expected traffic situation opens the way for public and private traffic managers to develop common traffic management strategies. This way smarter and consistent traffic management and navigation services can be provided to road users.

 

Mutual trust and openness

The needs and interests, both for the commercial parties (e.g. revenues, customer satisfaction) as well as authorities (e.g. fast, safe and green traffic), are evident. They are in some extent overlapping but are different on other aspects, and it may be a challenge to find a cooperation model that is attractive for all. Working together means each party must have a clear vision on the future of mobility and the role and position of its own organisation. But above all, a basis of mutual trust and openness is needed to shape the future together. That’s why the SOCRATES^2.0 partners started with defining a common ground for cooperation on a strategic level. The so-called SOCRATES^2.0 framework on public-private traffic management recently became available for all stakeholders. The vision describes the desired future state and will guide the definition of the use cases and the scope of tests to be performed at the various pilot sites.

 

Welcome on ITS Copenhagen

The collaboration makes SOCRATES^2.0 a unique and valuable project, from which lessons can be drawn for all stakeholders in the traffic management chain. The demonstration partners of SOCRATES^2.0  will be happy to meet you at the ITS World Congress Copenhagen from September 17-21, in booth E-085 and E-074.Ask for Edwin Mein (Technolution), Matthias Mann or Zahra Parvaneh (HERE), Irina Koller or Felix Rempe (BMW Group).
 

More information

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