As of: March 23, 2024, 1:00 p.m
By: Susanne Lüderitz
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Simulations make it possible to optimize traffic flows.
With their help, planners can test the effects of infrastructure projects in advance.
© Susanne Lüderitz
How do changes in road traffic, such as closures, affect other traffic?
A new traffic simulation should provide answers to this.
Kempten - Speed limits, major construction sites or new traffic routes: If changes are made to road traffic, planners must keep an eye on the consequences, for example for residents, the environment or other city traffic.
Are road users giving way?
If yes how?
Which traffic light circuit is the best?
Where do bottlenecks or congestion arise?
Now a new traffic simulation, integrated into the “Smart Cities Model Projects” funding program, is intended to help with such forecasts and also be accessible to citizens.
The Committee for Mobility and Transport unanimously approved a feasibility study.
The new traffic model in Kempten should be user-friendly
“A transport model already exists,” said mobility manager Stefan Sommerfeld in the committee.
The problem is its age.
“It goes back to different traffic counts at different times.” Since the solutions in the “Smart Cities” project are intended to be innovative and model-based, among other things, the traffic model has a user-friendly interface that enables city employees to make predictions without any exceptional expert knowledge hold true.
Citizens will later also have access to a special web version of the software via Smart City.
What is needed is precise data such as population numbers, street layouts, locations of hospitals, schools, speed zones, the behavior of road users or commuter flows, which come from surveys, databases or measurements.
“Permanent traffic counts can be carried out using a variety of technical methods, including induction loops in the road surface, camera systems for image analysis, radar or lidar sensors for speed measurement, and cell phone data for movement tracking,” according to the committee’s meeting submission.
“No matter what data is used, it must always be compliant with data protection regulations,” explains Sommerfeld when asked.
In camera-based surveys, for example, the reader only sees the numbers and never the film.
License plates would be coded by the system.
Traffic model raises concerns, but also has supporters
Initial cost estimates are 800,000 euros, of which the city would cover 35 percent itself.
However, it is not yet possible to make precise statements, which is why the feasibility study is necessary, says Sommerfeld.
This should also help to determine the essential components.
The study itself is budgeted at 50,000 euros, 35 percent of which will also be borne by the city.
Concerns were raised in the committee about possible follow-up costs, for example from Alexander Buck (FW-ÜP) and Helmut Berchtold (CSU).
“How can we manage to develop a sensor system that can do all of this with 300,000 euros?” the latter questioned the estimates.
Josef Mayr (CSU) also warned that costs should be kept in mind.
He advocated “targeted measures” instead of the “broad suitcase”.
Julius Bernhardt (FFK) and Thomas Hartmann (Greens) saw the investment as positive from the start.
Bernhardt spoke of “a powerful instrument”.
Hartmann warned that if you forego a current model, you may be making yourself “vulnerable.”
The advantages such as future cost savings, for example on large construction sites or citizens' inquiries, were also highlighted by civil engineering department head Markus Wiedemann and construction officer Tim Koemstedt, both of whom were supporters.
“We currently have very high expenses for simulations,” says Wiedemann.
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