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PTV boosts its partnership with Hamburg

Germany’s second-largest city wants to improve public transport and 'livability'
By David Arminas December 13, 2024 Read time: 2 mins
Partners have 'unique opportunity to share expertise in operational traffic management' (© Carolannefreeling | Dreamstime.com)

PTV Group, part of Umovity, has agreed a partnership with the road agency for Hamburg in northern Germany to advance integrated and sustainable mobility solutions.

The agreement is officially with the State Office for Roads, Bridges and Waterways (LSBG), a subsidiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg – Germany’s second-largest city after Berlin and sixth largest in the European Union, with a population of over 1.9 million. 

Hamburg has set ambitious goals to create a more livable urban environment by expanding public transportation, promoting cycling and walking and advancing the digitalisation and electrification of transportation. 

LSBG and PTV aim exchange expertise and foster collaboration to accelerate urban mobility innovations by focusing on a cross-modal transport management system, explained Stefan Klotz, managing director of LSBG. He emphasised that the agreement creates “a unique opportunity to share expertise in operational traffic management”.

Christoph Heel (left), chief digital officer of LSBG, and Christian Haas, chief executive of PTV, formalise the partnership

PTV said the agreement builds on its long history of collaboration with LSBG. Notable successes include their joint work on the ‘#transmove’ project for smart mobility forecasts. The real-time traffic management software PTV Optima is a key component of this initiative, visualising traffic conditions and providing short-term forecasts to enhance urban mobility.

“For years, Hamburg and LSBG have been trailblazers for human-focused mobility, consistently pushing forward innovative solutions,” said Christian U. Haas, chief executive of PTV Group. “Today, modern technologies, smart algorithms and artificial intelligence offer tremendous opportunities to develop dynamic multimodal network management systems that enable integrated mobility planning and management.”

Hamburg’s Metropolitan area has a further 5.1 million people and is the eighth-largest metropolitan region by GDP in the EU.

It is also one of Germany's three city-states alongside Berlin and Bremen. It is surrounded by the German state of Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south. Hamburg’s port is Germany's largest and Europe's third-largest, after Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium.

Bridgepoint acquired a majority stake in PTV Group in January 2022 in order to further accelerate its growth together with shareholder Porsche Automobile Holding. Since 2023 PTV and Econolite have been united under the brand Umovity.

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