Siemens Mobility project uses rerouting to improve air quality in Munich

Up to 40% of drivers are willing to help reduce air pollution when provided with alternative routes on ThinxNet’s Ryd platform, says Siemens Mobility. The partners worked with air quality specialist Hawa Dawa in a four-week project in Munich to prove that intelligent traffic control can help cities become more sustainable. Siemens says initial results for more than 1,600 drivers in the German city showed savings of 83 kg of carbon dioxide and 114 g of nitrogen oxide as well as a reduction of 633km driven
February 25, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
Up to 40% of drivers are willing to help reduce air pollution when provided with alternative routes on ThinxNet’s Ryd platform, says 120 Siemens Mobility.


The partners worked with air quality specialist Hawa Dawa in a four-week project in Munich to prove that intelligent traffic control can help cities become more sustainable.

Siemens says initial results for more than 1,600 drivers in the German city showed savings of 83 kg of carbon dioxide and 114 g of nitrogen oxide as well as a reduction of 633km driven.

If the programme were to be scaled to 20,000 drivers, the savings would be the equivalent to planting more than one acre of forested land, the company suggests.

Hawa provided pollution forecasts to Siemens’ ITS digital lab in Munich, where data scientists and traffic management experts analysed the data with anonymised trip data from the smart car platform Ryd to predict individual routes and suggest ‘green’ alternatives. These routes were then provided to Ryd users via an app before they started their journeys.

Ryd users can use the app to receive information on car’s health such as fuel consumption, battery life and fuel in level in the engine.  

Drivers were incentivised to use alternative routes by participating in a competition in which they received Amazon vouchers.

Michael Peter, CEO of Siemens Mobility, says shaping connected mobility will improve the efficiency of transportation and its impact on the environment.

Karim Tarraf, Hawa Dawa’s CEO, says: “We believe eco-routing at the individual vehicle level has extremely high potential as a policy option in tackling unacceptable levels of traffic-related air pollution in cities.”

Related Content

  • Vehicle manufacturers and local authorities seek satnav solutions
    December 5, 2013
    The increasing capability of satellite navigation is helping vehicle manufacturers and local authorities as well as individual drivers and fleets. In comparison to the physical ITS infrastructure in towns and cities and on motorways and highways, satellite navigation (satnav) systems have come a long way in a short time. Many (if not the majority) individual drivers and fleets use or have access to a satnav and now the vehicle manufacturers and even local authorities are beginning to utilise satnav derived
    Read More
  • Reducing climate impacts starts at the intersection, says Inrix
    September 11, 2023
    The tools to identify and reduce unnecessary delays at intersections are here – and traffic signal performance improvement is also eligible for US government funding, points out Rick Schuman of Inrix
    Read More
  • Big data and GPS combine to cut emergency response times
    April 2, 2014
    David Crawford looks at technologies for better emergency medical service delivery. Emergency medical services (EMS) play key roles in transporting, or bringing treatment to, patients who become ill through medical emergencies or are injured in road traffic accidents (RTAs). But awareness has been rising steadily, in the US and elsewhere, of the extent to which EMS can generate their own emergencies. The most common cause is vehicles causing or becoming involved in RTAs, as a result of driving fast under pr
    Read More
  • Vector offers EV journey planning app to drivers in New Zealand
    February 18, 2019
    Energy company Vector has partnered with Dutch start-up Chargetrip to launch an electric vehicle (EV) journey planning app in New Zealand aimed at reducing ‘range anxiety’ for drivers. Range anxiety is a term used to describe the stress EV users experience when their destination could be further than their vehicle can travel without charging. The project, supported by growth accelerator Elemental Excelarator, is seeking to help drivers switch to electric driving. The app will offer information o
    Read More

Highlighted Content