Skip to main content

PTV Group opens Mobility Lab

In cooperation with the City of Karlsruhe, Germany, PTV Group has established a Mobility Lab, where various traffic planning and model solutions will be linked to one another and to other solutions in order to try out new ideas and approaches as well as their effects on cities and regions worldwide.
June 26, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

In cooperation with the City of Karlsruhe, Germany, 3264 PTV Group has established a Mobility Lab, where various traffic planning and model solutions will be linked to one another and to other solutions in order to try out new ideas and approaches as well as their effects on cities and regions worldwide.

From real-time solutions for traffic and transport planning to new, need-based mobility services (Mobility as a Service), the company hopes that the mobility lab will make a contribution to developing Karlsruhe into a smart city and enable future-oriented solutions to be developed for other cities.

The heart of the Mobility Lab is the Karlsruhe traffic management system based on PTV Optima software. In this system, based on a down-to-the-hour transport model of the city of Karlsruhe, the PTV online detector data is provided with the traffic planning software. It comes from the 189 Siemens city traffic control system. In addition, data is provided by various commercial data suppliers such as 7643 Here, 163 Inrix, MotionLogic and 1692 TomTom. Linking of these models and data in the PTV Optima real-time traffic management system provides a range of functionalities for transport planners.

Action scenarios can also be developed in the Mobility Lab to react to various incidents, by changing the service offerings, or adjusting traffic signal programs or coordinating them to provide a ‘green wave’. The switching of variable message signs and the influencing of traffic demand through messages on the radio, internet or in navigation systems can also be modelled, while the effects of various scenarios can be simulated online in order to select the best course of action.

Related Content

  • January 25, 2012
    Mixed results for public-private traffic management partnerships
    David Crawford looks at the somewhat patchy success to date of trying to involve the private sector in operating traffic management centres
  • April 10, 2012
    Why integrated traffic management needs a cohesive approach
    Traffic control is increasingly being viewed as one essential element of a wider ‘system of systems’ – the smart city. Jason Barnes, Jon Masters and David Crawford report on latest ideas and efforts for making cities ‘smarter’ Virtually every element of the fabric and utilitarian operations that make urban areas tick can now be found somewhere in the mix that is the ‘smart city’ agenda. Ideas have expanded and projects pursued in different directions as the rhetoric on making cities ‘smarter’ has grown. App
  • April 25, 2013
    Growth of smart parking initiatives
    New initiatives in smart parking have been announced in the US and Europe in recent months. Is the age of smarter parking finally with us? Jon Masters investigates. Smart parking comes to Manchester, reads the headline to a story posted on the UK city’s website towards the end of March this year. Sensors will be fixed to parking spaces to give drivers and authorities information on parking availability via mobile phone apps and other software, the story goes on to explain. Lower down the page, Manchester Ci
  • October 10, 2016
    Smart moves highlighted by PTV
    As well as featuring its involvement in an innovative new test bed in Australia, PTV Group is here to highlight that smart living needs to be based on smart solutions. As the company points out, buildings and infrastructure pop up like mushrooms, creating a steadily rising number of mega-cities: more people means less individual space and increased mobility challenges. “The age of connectivity is upon us and it is bringing within it transport and mobility innovation on an unprecedented scale,” said Mille