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Precise measurement and intelligent
processing of travel time data
Accurate information for traffic management systems and road users
Precise travel times –
a true added value in
traffic management
Efficient traffic control and successful
traffic management require the availability
of precise data on the current traffic
situation. Besides detector data collected
at various points in the street network,
measured travel times are playing an
increasing role because they are more
accurate indicators of traffic disturbances.
Travel times reflect all disruptive factors
on a given route, even those incidents
or conditions that cannot be detected by
an individual detector. This is why the
new members of the Sitraffic® family of
travel time measurement and calculating
systems provide true added value in the
context of traffic management.
The Sicore ANPR
camera system and
the Bluetooth / WLAN
scanner allow the
direct and accurate
measurement of travel
times.
Direct measurement instead
of theoretical deduction
Sitraffic travel time measurement solutions provide accurately measured data.
In contrast to former systems, which
deducted route-related values from local
measurements, the new systems provide
directly measured values for the amount
of time needed to travel from point x
to point y on route z. These data are a
valuable addition to the data pool in the
traffic control center and enable new
traffic management functions.
Three systems, one common purpose –
highly efficient traffic management
Our Sitraffic portfolio contains a complete range of products for travel time
solutions, from data collection to application. The travel times are measured using
either ANPR* cameras for automated
number plate recognition, or combined
Bluetooth / WLAN scanners. The travel
time servers of these systems transmit
the aggregated travel time data to the
Sitraffic Scala or Sitraffic Concert traffic
control center. There, our new ‘Travel
Time Kit’ processes and edits the data
and prepares them for visualization so
that they can be used as input for various
traffic management applications.
For details on our travel time products,
please see the inside of this fold-out
page.
* ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition)
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Sitraffic travel time solutions for
everything from measurement
to data processing at the center
Processing on the
traffic computer
platform ensures
the full integration
of the travel time
data, making them
available for traffic
monitoring as well
as various traffic management purposes.
Automated number plate
recognition with Sicore
Sicore is an intelligent camera system
that sets a completely new benchmark in
automated number plate recognition.
The cameras detect every vehicle, reading its number plate for unique identification, a process that is repeated at every
measurement point. Immediately after
the number plate has been read, a proven
encryption system is used to anonymize
the data, making later decoding impossible – a sure safeguard against data
privacy issues and your guarantee that
Sicore meets all data privacy regulations.
The system has been designed for all
kinds of travel time measurement applications, including and in particular for
long road sections with many access and
exit points.
Detection of mobile devices with
Bluetooth / WLAN scanners
This measurement method builds on the
fact that a substantial percentage of all
vehicles carry electronic devices such as
mobile phones, navigation systems or
hands-free telephone sets. The WLAN
detection technology is able to detect
also smartphones, the latest generation
of mobile devices, ensuring the compatibility of the system with future technological developments. Even without
establishing a connection, the system
can retrieve the unique MAC address of
each mobile device. This ID is used to
re-identify the same vehicle at other
measuring points in the road network.
These data are encrypted before transmission and form the basis for the subsequent travel time calculations.
Thanks to the high re-identification rate,
travel times can be measured accurately
even if many vehicles are leaving the
road between two measurement points.
Another core application of the camera
technology is the deduction of origindestination matrices.
The special appeal of the Bluetooth /
WLAN solution is the low cost for the
devices and their installation; a single
scanner, for instance, can cover all travel
directions on the entire intersection. This
system is suitable for use in all applications that require a recognition rate of
about 30 % because this is the typical
percentage of cars carrying a device that
Bluetooth / WLAN scanners can detect.
Comparison of ANPR and Bluetooth technologies
Bluetooth / WLAN scanner
System
ANPR
Detection rate
>95 %
20 – 30 %
Number of lanes
covered by a
single device
1–2
Unlimited,
depends on
antenna range
Detection of
both lanes using
two detectors
No
Yes
Installation in
the road surface
No
No
Encrypted data
transmissions
Yes
Yes
Easy installation
+
++
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Sitraffic Travel Time Kit
for intelligent data processing
at the traffic control center
The new software module ‘Sitraffic
Travel Time Kit’ has been developed for
the intelligent processing of sectionrelated traffic data on the Sitraffic Scala
or Sitraffic Concert traffic computer
platforms. It can handle all data independently of the detector technology
used for data collection. The extended
data model meets the specific requirements of section-related data. It includes
for instance:
• Travel time
• Travel speed
• Number of travel time measurements
within the defined time interval
• Quality index.
The traffic computer imports and processes these data to provide valuable
input for various applications such as
the module calculating the current
traffic situation.
Additional valuable data for traffic
management applications
The collected and edited data serve not
only for travel time and traffic situation
calculations at the traffic control center,
but are also useful for rule-based traffic
control, driver information services and
route recommendations on the basis of
real-time measurements, as well as for
various strategic traffic management
applications. Moreover, accurate travel
time data make it easier to calculate the
environmental impact of the current traffic load. The number of stops of individual vehicles, for instance, allows a more
precise deduction of carbon, particulate
and noise emission values. These are
important elements in an environmentsensitive traffic management system.
Quality assessment of traffic
intervention measures
Reduced travel times are an indicator
of the effectiveness of traffic control
measures, which means that travel
time measurement is a suitable way
of assessing the quality of traffic interventions. Travel time statistics recorded
before and after the implementation
of a certain measure (e.g. coordinated
green phases) show if and to what
degree traffic flow has been improved.
A key indicator of the quality and success of the measure.
Statistical analyses provided by the Sitraffic Travel Time Kit: Hour-by-hour calculation of the congestion risk
on the detector-equipped sections of the road network
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The benefits at a glance
• Travel times and local traffic data
available on a common platform
• Open interfaces ensure smooth data
integration
• New data basis for traffic monitoring,
traffic management and the provision
of traffic information
• More precise detection of incidents
True data integration at
the traffic control center
The Sitraffic Travel Time Kit software
module integrates the relevant portion
of the directly measured section-related
traffic data into the data pool of the
Sitraffic Scala or Sitraffic Concert traffic
control center. This means that the data
are made fully available for all kinds of
traffic management applications and that
all typical visualization displays, lists and
statistics provided by Sitraffic Scala and
Sitraffic Concert now also include the
directly measured section-related data.
• Data available offline for planning
and evaluation purposes
Travel time measurement
ANPR – Sicore
Traffic control center
Existing data pool
• Local detection
• Traffic light data
• Roadworks
• Incidents and failures
• Models
• Weather
• Data logs
• Others
Actors
Strategic control
Traffic light
network
control
Variable
direction
signs
Information
panels
Bluetooth / WLAN scanner
Data integration with
Sitraffic Travel Time Kit
Information dissemination
Internet
Central functions
Radio
stations
Mobile
radio
services
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Siemens AG
Infrastructure & Cities Sector
Mobility and Logistics Division
Road and City Mobility
Otto-Hahn-Ring 6
81739 Munich
Germany
www.siemens.com
© Siemens AG 2014
All rights reserved
Printed in Germany
DEI 73/52319 WS 03143.0
Dispo No. 22300 K No. 688
Order No. A19100-V350-B186-X-7600
The information in this document
contains general descriptions of
technical options, which may not
be present in every individual case.
The desired performance characteristics are therefore to be specified
on a case-by-case basis when the
contract is agreed.