Road Traffic Management Best Practices

Thanks to the continued increase in motorization, the borders of many cities are actually eroding. The urban population is increasingly moving to the suburbs, turning this part of the territory into a continuation of the city. Therefore, the need to ensure the transport accessibility of growing settlements, the possibility of pendulum migration is forced to consider the road network of the city and suburbs as a single transport infrastructure that ensures the full functioning of the urban agglomeration and improving the quality of life of the population.

The expert emphasizes that in the vast majority of cities there is very little opportunity to fundamentally improve the transport situation, and the most effective approach in solving the transport problems of the city is an integrated approach. It ensures the development of transport infrastructure, the improvement of traffic management with a simultaneous revision of urban planning priorities in terms of a greater balance between labor and so-called settlement areas - residential development zones, public centers and recreational places for the population. This integrated approach is implemented using ITS methods and technologies, which, as Ivan Mordanov, deputy director for the construction, operation and development of ITS Schwabe-Moscow, notes, include a wide range of systems: from peripheral equipment of the road transport network, individual IT subsystems of equipment and software management to the upper-level Unified Transport System Management Platform (EPUTS).

The introduction of EPUTS is a prospect not only for millions of cities, but also an optimal solution for regional centers, "Ivan Mordanov emphasizes. - With the creation of a single platform, it is possible to ensure effective management of urban transport and traffic flows, online monitor the situation in terms of traffic and traffic violations, as well as analyze data on passenger transport and equipment malfunctions.

Key elements of the system are:

• Automated Traffic Management System (ASUDD).
• Integrated Road Traffic Management System (ICCS).
• Dynamic Transport Model (DTM).
• Digital double.

Increased road capacity

One of the most acute problems of cities is congestion of road networks. It is characteristic, both for highways where cargo passenger transportation is carried out in large volumes, and for street and road networks (UDS) of cities where most of the fleet of personal vehicles runs. The main task of ASUDD is to effectively combat congestion, which greatly affects both the quality of life of citizens and the economy region as a whole, the company says Softline and identifies two options for the development of ASUDD systems.

The first is a centralized solution: a single data center and traffic management, which concentrates the entire intelligent component of traffic management in the city. Decisions about changes in the mode of road controllers are made by an operator who monitors the current situation in the center. The second is to upgrade the road controller located at the intersection to a state of smart equipment capable of making decisions at the local level of the intersection without the participation of the operator.

Two Options for Traffic Management Architecture

Source: Fundamentals of creating intelligent transport systems in urban agglomerations of Russia. I. A. Evstigneev. - M.: Pero Publishing House, 2021

If we talk about increasing the capacity of the road network as one of the tasks of ITS, then, of course, it is worth starting with the technology of adaptive regulation of traffic lights in complex areas,- says Ivan Mordanov, deputy director for the construction, operation and development of ITS "Schwabe-Moscow." - At the moment, this is one of the most sought-after elements of the transport system in millions of cities, where fixed-setting equipment does not always cope with the task of increasing throughput.

The complex system "Smart Intersection" (the development of "SpetsDorProject," part of the holding "Schwabe"), which has been introduced in Moscow since 2018, allows you to see the current loading level at the entrance to the intersection on the basis of induction loops sewn into the roadway, and including provides innovative technology to provide priority travel to public transport, thereby increasing throughput at intersections.

Inductive loop detectors are installed at a depth of 15 cm, when asphalt is replaced, they are not damaged and provide 99.9% of transport detection. In general, the Smart Intersection system includes several components:

• Detection of transport using inductive loop detectors embedded in the roadway.
• Traffic light management in adaptive mode with priority of urban traffic.
• Synchronization through integration of all objects into the intelligent transport system of Moscow.

During the work, two intelligent traffic controllers "Stream" and 38 inductive loop detectors of transport were installed. The operation modes at 8 traffic lights were reconfigured, 28 information sections were installed for seepage (white-lunar sections), the geometry of road markings at two traffic lights was changed, two adjustable pedestrian crossings were created, 8 pedestrian phase call buttons were installed and a turning left lane was organized due to the transfer of the cable fence at the intersection of Lenin and Katyushka streets.

Four-eyed "traffic lights with an additional white-moon section warn drivers that they need to give way to pedestrians when making a turn. This innovation is the requirement of a new GOST for intersections, where it is impossible to separate a separate phase for pedestrians and the traffic flow intersects with the flow of people walking along crossings.

EV-Crossroad - a non-trivial system for optimizing traffic light objects - was developed by Intelligent Video Analytics.

We are currently piloting the optimization of two associated intersections with local data processing directly at intersections. We have not yet met such solutions on the market, "says Vyacheslav Lukin, CEO of Intelligent Video Analytics.

This is also a unique feature, because often accident events are revealed by indirect signs and rigid logic, for example, by the fact of stopping a car at an intersection, "the expert explains. - In our case, a neural network of deep learning is used, which, according to a number of parameters (speed, acceleration, trajectory of the car, etc.), instantly makes a decision about the event.

The project for the implementation of these solutions was implemented, for example, in the Krasnodar Territory, where at several intersections there was a modernization of traffic lights, and the customer of the work - the administration of the Krasnodar Territory - immediately decided to make these intersections innovative, technological and modern.

In the cabinet of the road controller were installed single boards computers with ours ON on board. Video stream c video cameras is transmitted via twisted pair and processed locally on each traffic light object. The system determines the occupancy of the lanes and the time characteristics of the traffic flow. This is information transmitted via the Trafficon protocol to the road controller SPECTRUM manufactured by the company. It LAID UP adjusts the duration of the traffic light phases offline and automatically. "

At the same time, the operator with access to the system has the opportunity to view all the information necessary to understand and evaluate the current status: video from cameras in real time, which traffic lights are set and acted on a certain day and time. A comprehensive solution has shown its effectiveness, they say in the company "Intelligent Video Analytics." According to measurements, at one of the six upgraded intersections, an increase in the capacity of this intersection by 3,000 cars per day (approximately 20%) was achieved. The average speed of the intersection increased by 129%, and the average distance between cars - by 45%. The customer decided to scale the solution by several dozen intersections of the Krasnodar Territory.

Example of the placard of variable information on the load of the MAC in Moscow

Another example of improving intersection control is the use of smart projectors instead of road lighting. In February, it became known that in Russia they began to use smart projectors instead of road lighting.

Gobo projector - equipment that allows you to display a static image of high quality and brightness on a medium - the so-called gobo-model (stencil or slide) made of glass, metal or film. The light flux power determines the power of the projector lamp. The first batch of smart obo-projectors developed by the Vector Research Institute (part of the Vega concern) went to the customer - the logistic operator Gazpromneft-Supply.

This equipment projects a pedestrian crossing and a stop line, replacing the usual road markings. Devices provide additional control of hazardous areas and increase the efficiency of warehouse logistics. According to the developers, the resulting projection is noticeable in any weather conditions: a light beam with a brightness of 330 lux makes the image visible from a distance of 200 m in conditions of snow, rain or fog. Moreover, a high-quality static image appears on any plane, and the projection distance 1: 1.1 indicates that for each meter of the height of the projector above the ground there are 1.1 m of the image. The project is equipped with an illumination sensor, due to which the smart obo-projector is turned on and off automatically, saving electricity at the facility during off-hours.

Nikolay Kuznetsov of ITS Business Development at Softline, emphasizes that the entire ITS industry today is in an active phase of development and financing:

For example, the DRMS systems are provided with multiple subsystems/modules. There are many manufacturers on the market who complement this system with various innovations and constantly develop.

So, the Smartroad software and hardware complex, developed by SORB Engineering, is a system for tracking objects on the road, which performs a range of tasks:

• Measurement of traffic intensity, recording of traffic parameters, high-precision determination of vehicle coordinates on the road with accuracy to the lane. At the same time, it is guaranteed to store recorded information for at least 1000 hour at an intensity of up to 100 thousand cars per day in one direction in built-in memory. In this case, the information and parameter settings are saved when the power is turned off for at least 1 month.
• Monitoring of incidents on the road: determination of congestion and accidents, fixation of transport objects moving backwards or stopped, detection of objects moving with dangerous deviation of speed from average flow speed, as well as situations of various objects appearing on the road: pedestrian, bicycle, wild animals, etc.
• Adaptive control of intersections: control of stop lines, measurement of queue length, intelligent control of intersections in order to reduce road congestion.

ICL offers customers the creation of a unified transport system management platform capable of collecting and analyzing traffic data in real time.

But it is already noticeable, says Nikolay Kuznetsov, that special methods begin to appear in the industry that will lead the technological aspects of ITS to certain criteria necessary for building a national network in the Russian Federation.

Several maturity levels will be identified: initial, basic, mature and advanced. Based on these methods, it is possible to assume the further development of ITS systems in urban agglomerations. So, new innovative solutions will appear. For example, increasing the functionality and role of ASUDD in the life of the city, unloading roads using technological solutions that will solve an urgent question: how to move easier on your car or city transport?

Transport simulations

{{quote 'The main problem of the transport system is the discrepancy of its capacity with the real demand for transport services. Any transport network optimized to meet the challenges of the current design point may require major changes in the future. The cheapest and most effective method of combating transport delays is to create an optimal traffic management scheme by analyzing various simulated traffic management schemes, "says Igor Evstigneev, head of the digital technology implementation department of ROSDORNII, in his book" Fundamentals of Creating Intelligent Transport Systems in Urban Agglomerations of Russia "(M.: Pero Publishing House, 2021). He emphasizes that the city needs to set up a regular, constant process of monitoring and management of traffic: "It is operational control that is required based on real, objective and dynamically updated real-time data. The city is not a static mathematical model. " }}

Transport planning products are designed to meet this challenge.

Modern systems of this class, tell the company Simetra (LLC "A + C transport"), includes vehicle, passenger and pedestrian flow simulators, 3D road simulator tools (simulation simulation), interchanges and other transport facilities, subsystems of optimization of route networks and public transport schedules, creation of forecast transport models of individual, passenger and freight transport, as well as modeling of mass events and development of evacuation schemes in emergency situations.

In addition, the use of transport modeling technologies will allow transportation customers - city administrations - to fully see the picture of real demand for public transport, which will help in the fight against "gray" carriers. The complexity of such models is evidenced by the fact that the description "5D-design" is used to create dynamic transport models, which implies: the spatial (3D) model of the object under construction, which is associated with the project schedule (4D) and the calculation of economically reasonable cost constructions(5D). The strength of such models is the possibility of digitally testing hypotheses about how the transport system will work in the conditions of given ideas about the current and forecast demand for transportation, as well as the quality of service for users of transport services. The flip side of these opportunities is the availability of the most accurate and reliable data on the level of demand that is presented to transport, both economic actors and society. And these assessments, in turn, are based on scenarios of the socio-economic development of the territories and relevant strategies.

It is worth noting that in modern times, transport models can be "fed" with various data reflecting the real situation, and with the help of this information you can create more realistic development scenarios, "notes Feit Appelt, CEO of the German company A + S Consult in his article in the journal Intelligent Transport Systems of Russia.

One of the world's most popular developers of dynamic transport model building tools is the German company PTV Group, whose technologies have been developing since the 70s of the last century. The main feature of its products, in addition to the ability to model all types of transport: cars, trains, aircraft, including public transport, bicycles and even cable cars, is multilayer modeling. So, the PTV Visum product provides the accumulation, systematization and advanced analytical processing of transport data. And the PTV Vissim product makes it possible to create a simulation model of the territory on a micro-level, that is, to actually recreate any situation on the streets and highways of cities, intersections, etc. In addition, there is a level of mesomodeling - you can combine the level of strategic analysis with the level of detailed planning.

The PTV Optima platform is the core of the dynamic model. It collects actual traffic measurements: intensity, speed, travel time from different data sources in real time and calculates the current situation on the road network using data from the hourly transport model that works in PTV Visum, along with data from current measurements.

This gives the possibility of a short-term forecast of the transport situation up to 60 minutes, "says Feit Appelt. - In other words, we can understand how, for example, an accident will affect the transport situation in 60 minutes.

One of the bright projects of introducing a transport modeling system based on PTV Group products was carried out in 2020 by Simetra for the Moscow data center. This organization received a set of software solutions for transport macro and micromodeling: PTV Visum Expert software for three thousand areas, PTV Visum Analytic licenses for three thousand areas and with PTV Vissim kits.

Transport models created with the help of PTV Visum help calculate the forecast of passenger, automobile, freight flows, as well as evaluate the effect of the implementation of the proposed solutions: the construction of interchanges, the expansion of the roadway, the introduction of new routes. The PTV Vissim software package is used to create simulation models at the level of an individual transport node. In this model, cars and pedestrians move according to scientifically sound behavioral schemes, due to which a high accuracy of calculations is achieved, explained in the company Simetra.

The package of software solutions is used in the development of CLDS documents (integrated traffic management schemes), the assessment of planning solutions in closed areas and for optimizing traffic. Feit Appelt says that the capital's project of the dynamic model of ITS is exemplary and is presented by the vendor and its partner "A + S Consult" (this company owns copyrights for the Russian-language version of PTV products and is engaged in their localization in the Russian market) internationally as an example of a very large innovative solution.

The ICL Transport Planning and Modelling System Construction Service also involves the construction of high-precision mathematical models that simulate the transport structure of urban agglomerations. After processing of initial data received from transport highways, their analytical processing is carried out in order to optimize traffic flows and make management decisions. The solution involves visualizing traffic flows when the organization of traffic changes and finding optimal options for organizing traffic.

To optimize the field of urban passenger transport, various intelligent public transport systems can be used, including road user information systems and the Digital Dual UDS system, which allows you to develop a high-precision electronic copy of the road network, "said Vladimir Kayurov, senior project manager of the ICL group. The "digital dual MAC" is a high-precision electronic copy of the road network, for which a modification of geospatial data on transport infrastructure is used.

And in the future there will be a transition to hybrid approaches in various aspects. This transition implies: the linkage and close integration of classical transport models with machine learning/artificial intelligence models, the simultaneous use of data-driven and model-driven approaches for mobility calculations and forecasts, the use of both "user balance" and "system" models, "says Andrei Prokhorov.

According to the expert, the most active development of analytical solutions of ITS is expected in the direction of predictive modeling of transport and passenger flows based on models of various types (from micro-, to meso- and macro-levels), as well as their adaptation for operational short- and medium-term forecasts linked to control and monitoring systems. At the same time, the directions of AI and machine learning for specific tasks will develop at the same time. For example, video recognition solutions will evolve in integration with analytical and simulation modeling algorithms at different levels.

This is primarily due to the fact that the upper level of ITS is needed, where not just beautiful graphics and pictures will be placed, but understandable predicted indicators of the efficiency of the transport complex. Moreover, both generalized indicators and indicators of individual elements and objects of the complex, which will be constantly recalculated and compared with fact. And this will become the main objective basis for decision-making (a system for supporting decision-making in the strategic and operational management of transport and its infrastructure), "emphasizes Andrei Prokhorov.

Parking in ITS system

The problem of parking is one of the most acute problems for any large Russian city. Digital solutions help improve the quality of the transport system in two aspects: monitoring compliance with the rules for using parking space on the side of the city/region leadership and helping car owners in finding free parking spaces.

Control of parking space

On the streets of Moscow, the first complexes for fixing violations of parking rules and stopping of the " ParkRight "Recognition Technologies" appeared almost a decade ago - in September 2012. They were installed in the cabin of a patrol car. Today, these complexes are also installed on the scooter and windshield of passenger transport.

The complex is used to fix violations of various types: parking and stopping rules, parking at shuttle stops, travel and parking on the route lane, exit to the oncoming lane, parking at a pedestrian crossing, stopping on tram tracks, at level crossings, bridges, as well as passage of a pedestrian crossing, route lane, oncoming lane, etc.

The ParkNet portable system is the specialized tablet intended for control of the paid parking and also for fixing of violations of the rules of a stop and the parking and other facts of administrative offenses with participation of motionless vehicles. The agrarian and industrial complex ParkNet makes photofixing, recognition of number of the car. It also forms a data package with photo evidence of the violation discovered: parking at shuttle vehicle stops or closer than 15 meters from shuttle vehicle stops, at a pedestrian crossing, on the sidewalk, if this is not allowed by the sign, in designated places for disabled vehicles, in designated places for fire equipment, in playgrounds, on the lawn.

This data packet, indicating the date, time and place of the event, the complex transmits over wireless communication lines to the data center to form a fine order, which is then sent to the owner of the car. At the same time, the car is checked against the search database. At the time of offense fixing the inspector with agrarian and industrial complex ParkNet can direct the message about compulsory evacuation of the car violator.

Parking Analysis

The system for monitoring parking space for the presence/absence of free parking spaces EV-Parking company "Intelligent Video Analytics" allows, through real-time video analytics technologies, to provide information on each parking space, including on a mobile phone: determining free and busy spaces, structuring the parking space, identifying situations when one car occupies two parking spaces. Access control functionality is also implemented through the API for integration with the throughput system and recognition of the car's GRZ.

According to Vyacheslav Lukin, the next step in the development of the system is the integration with the navigation system to accompany the driver from the parking departure place to the parking destination.

The Parkomatika system of ISS (Intelligent Social Systems) is aimed at commercial companies that own their own fleet of cars. Dmitry Koch, Director General of ISS, classifies this decision as a class of systems that allow the organization to introduce into the rather chaotic processes of urban parking.

City and many commercial parking lots are connected to the system: when the driver needs to leave the car, he sees all the available parking lots in the Parkomatika mobile application. Parking is also paid through the application: sessions are opened and closed in a couple of clicks. The "highlight" of the solution is that in this service the funds are debited from a single corporate account and in exactly the same style as for urban parking. Thus, there is a single parking account for the entire fleet, and detailed cost reporting is always available in the company's personal account.

Drivers no longer need to think how to pay for parking, an accountant - how to report, and a fleet manager - how to control expenses and set limits, the company says. It is clear why this service has gained the greatest popularity in the B2B segment among companies with a large fleet, Dmitry Koch notes:

It allows you to pay for parking and travel on toll roads after the fact from a single corporate account, manage a list of drivers and cars, track the condition of each vehicle, set limits on all expenses, form ready-made reports, conduct analytics and much more.

For example, it is possible to pay for parking in fully automatic mode.

For this, a special device is used with a built-in SIM card, GPS tracker and accelerometer, which are connected to the car through the OBD II connector. The smart algorithm itself understands that the car has parked, initiates the start of a parking session and sends a push notification. In the same way, the session ends.

Like the semi-automatic mode, this opportunity allows you to significantly reduce the number of fines for incorrect parking and make life easier for drivers - both fleet employees and all car owners, "Dmitry Koch emphasizes.

In fact, Parkomatika is a comprehensive service with a large number of tools to automate work, reduce costs and increase the efficiency of the fleet, which today is used by more than 500 companies.

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