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| Progress pays - Austrian telematics cluster takes shape.
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10/1/05 |
Austria has embarked on a major programme designed to improve traffic management, reduce congestion and improve road safety through the introduction of a range of ITS technologies and a radical shift in thinking.
Around a thousand CCTV cameras linked via a network of outstations to a national traffic control centre in Vienna are expected to provide real-time traffic information direct to drivers' 3G mobile phones and roadside VMS. Complete roll-out of the programme is expected to take five years. The initiative is also expected to be accompanied by a major shift in focus by ASFINAG (Osterreichische Autobahnenund Schnellstrassen Finanzierungs AG), the Austrian roads provider, towards a service-driven, customer orientated approach.
"This is a major change," said Paul Forstreiter, head of Siemens ITS, Austria. "Twenty years ago it was not uncommon to see construction sites with no workers. Now we have 24 hour a day workings and there is a far greater emphasis on driver information."
While control of the scheme will reside with ASFINAG, the contract for the supply of the communications, CCTV and computer equipment as well as the construction of the central and outstation control rooms, has been awarded to the Siemens/Heusch & Boesefeldt consortium. Still in the early stages of its work, the consortium has so far only completed the construction of the central Traffic Management Control in Vienna and the first three pilot outstations in Upper Austria, Salzburg and Tyrol(1).
"In the long term," said Forstreiter, "all the data from the outstations, including the images from the CCTV cameras, will flow to the central control room but for the moment only the three pilot sites have the necessary communications links All the out-stations will work independently of one another and all of them will provide real-time traffic information, including CCTV images, to the mobile 'phones of drivers."
Funding for the scheme will come from the additional tolling revenues made possible by the greater throughput of traffic. Although ASFINAG is ostensibly a private company, it is wholly owned by the government to whom it pays credits arising out of its own tolling revenues - including the Austrian lorry road user charging scheme. Eighteen months ago, the company was one of the founding members of the Austrian Telematics Cluster - an organisation designed to harmonise the development of ITS and telematics services and equipment.
"The driving force behind the Austrian Telematics Cluster and the creation of an additional telematics layer was ASFINAG," said Forstreiter. "The tolling business is propelling the provision of telematic clusters and all the major partners are trying to harmonise their services with the aim of improving (the commercial viability) of traffic control."
But pressure to improve the level of service provided to drivers including cleaner, safer roads and better information has also resulted in the goal to provide a range of communications channels including RDS-TMC (Radio Data Service - Traffic Management Channel), DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) with Bluetooth. Once these visions are implemented, the DSRC-based on-board unit currently fitted to heavy goods vehicles could have, as well as its primary role of deducting the appropriate toll fee, a permanent connection to a traffic information channel.
"Information has to be relevant to individual drivers," said Forstreiter, "and we are working on the development of filters that will ensure that only information of a local nature is made available. But while (safety-critical) information will be free at the point of use, other value-added information provided by some of our partners such as T-Mobile and the Austrian Automobile Association, will not. We hope to be able to influence about 10% of drivers away from congested areas."
Interest in the scheme has already been mooted by DARS, the Slovenian motorway provider, with a view to a similar scheme being adopted in that country.
Notes:
Salzburg outstation close to Ofenauer-Hierfler tunnel covers queue-endangered segments on the A10 motorway and uses queue-detection loops, VMS and CCTV to control traffic flow. The Upper Austria fog detection system covers parts of the A1, where frequent fog-related accidents occur. VMS , queue detection and CCTV is implemented in a similar way. Tyrol outstation covers the whole length of the A12 and A13 routes between Kufstein (on the German border all the way to Munich) and Brenner (on the Italian border leading to Verona).
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Further information, contact:
Paul Forstreiter, Head of Siemens ITS Austria, Erdbergerlände 26, 1030 Wien, Bau C, 3. Stock Zimmer C3259. Tel: +43 51707 36375, E-mail: paul.forstreiter@siemens.com
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