Skip to main content

New software aids traffic studies

New software from the PTV Group enables users to carry out traffic studies necessitated by planned housing schemes or shopping centre construction, which could have a substantial influence on traffic management. According to PTV, its PTV Vistro software simplifies traffic studies and allows users to quickly create networks, while at the same time enabling them to optimise traffic signals. The user can specify the geometry of the network, add data from traffic counts and specify traffic control rules for in
January 7, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
New software from the 3264 PTV Group enables users to carry out traffic studies necessitated by planned housing schemes or shopping centre construction, which could have a substantial influence on traffic management.

According to PTV, its PTV Vistro software simplifies traffic studies and allows users to quickly create networks, while at the same time enabling them to optimise traffic signals.  The user can specify the geometry of the network, add data from traffic counts and specify traffic control rules for individual nodes, such as traffic signals.  Bing maps and aerial views, drag and drop, node templates and ‘snap to’ controls make modelling easier.

A built-in scenario manager enables users to analyse different traffic demand scenarios and planning variants, both with respect to individual nodes as well as to the entire network. PTV Vistro offers automated reporting for the final version of the traffic impact analyses and traffic signal optimisation, which PTV says can be done at the push of a button for individual intersections, selected corridors or whole networks.

"PTV Vistro is an integral component of our Vision traffic suite and as such offers interfaces to the PTV Vissim traffic simulation software and the PTV Visum transport planning software which allows users to also model large-scale networks and multi-modal transport, says Dr Ing Axel Leonhardt, product management director for PTV Vistro.  "Our PTV Vistro software leads the user through the individual steps of a traffic study and also offers him the opportunity to plan and optimise the traffic signals directly within this workflow.  Something that previously required two different tools now requires just one solution. This increases data consistency and efficiency.”
"Alternatively, existing networks can be imported from our PTV Visum planning software and other planning tools", says Leonhardt.  "PTV Vistro also allows users to create their network model in a highly efficient manner. This makes the software attractive as an additional tool for the Visum or Vissim user," says Leonhardt.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Road user charging - replacing the gas tax with a mileage based fee
    January 19, 2012
    Oregon Department of Transportation's James Whitty discusses his state's progress with VMT fee-based charging. Back in 2001, the state of Oregon stole a lead on the rest of the US when it decided to address the need to do something about the gas tax and its decreasing ability to fund highway construction and upkeep. Recognising that a dwindling pot of money could only shrink further as vehicles became more fuelefficient, Oregon's Legislative Assembly passed laws which led to the setting up, by the state's g
  • Mobility pricing offers new tools for managing mobility
    November 23, 2017
    Mobility pricing is the best way of sustaining and enhancing mobility, argues Moving Forward Consulting’s Josef Czako. Mobility pricing (MP) is effectively the culmination of the ‘user pays’ principle and has been referred to in many policy discussions about electronic toll collection, road user charging (RUC), and pricing. MP not only reflects the ‘use more, pay more’ nature of RUC, it also takes account of the external cost of journeys including pollution, noise, the cost of congestion and accidents.
  • TRL launches MOVA speed
    August 19, 2013
    TRL’s MOVA (Microprocessor Optimised Vehicle Actuation) is an established strategy for the control of traffic light signals at isolated junctions.
  • Reducing transport energy use with real time travel information
    January 23, 2012
    The In-Time project is looking at the effect that multi-modal real-time traveller information services can have of reducing transport's energy consumption levels. By Martin Böhm, AustriaTech GmbH. Around the world, significant research and development effort is currently directed towards reducing energy consumption by addressing those areas where the biggest savings can be expected. European studies have shown that the transport sector has the potential to reduce its energy consumption by up to 26 per cent