City of Ghent — BelgiumLive Deployment
New traffic control system secures Ghent as the country's sustainable mobility city
Ghent uses Be-Mobile's FlowControl platform to combine real-time traffic and parking information, monitor dynamic displays and guide road users with more relevant mobility information.
Project at a glance
Developed for Ghent Mobility Company, with Q-lite providing the LED displays and Jacops leading the project and installing the complete system.
- Challenge
- Replace an ageing parking-guidance system with a more flexible solution that could use real-time traffic and mobility information and provide better operational visibility.
- Approach
- Combine Be-Mobile traffic data, Ghent open data and display information in FlowControl to create and manage dynamic traffic and parking-guidance scenarios.
- Outcome
- Ghent gained a flexible, modular guidance system with new digital displays and 24/7 monitoring of the traffic situation and display status.
Why Ghent needed a more flexible traffic and parking guidance system
That the City of Ghent values mobility is no secret. The legacy story describes Ghent as Belgium's best-performing city for sustainable mobility and liveability, supported in part by its circulation plan and low-emission zone.
For years, digital displays along the city's major access roads directed car traffic towards suitable car parks and helped reduce search traffic. After years of service, however, the system needed to be replaced.
The existing traffic-guidance system mainly displayed the occupancy of underground car parks and no longer offered the flexibility required by a modern city. The LED displays were becoming increasingly difficult to read, the underlying software was outdated and replacement components were no longer available.
Through a public tender, Ghent Mobility Company selected Be-Mobile for the software, Q-lite for the LED displays and Jacops to lead the project and install the complete system.
“Cities have an increasing demand for mobility and parking. At the same time, they also have to meet increasingly tough policy objectives, think improving air quality, reducing traffic and congestion, greening the city, reducing on-street parking, etc. Be-Mobile's smart mobility solutions help the city achieve those objectives and have a positive impact on the city's residents and visitors.” — Jan Cools, CEO at Be-Mobile
Reliable real-time information for changing urban traffic conditions
A city needs reliable data sources to monitor its traffic situation, particularly during serious disruptions such as accidents or congestion.
Alongside its existing real-time sources and historical data, Ghent gained insight into real-time travel times and incidents, together with notifications of serious traffic problems through Be-Mobile's solution. The dynamic signs could then adapt to the current traffic situation.
The new system needed to become operational quickly to keep traffic in Ghent moving. The legacy story states that Be-Mobile's experience in deploying similar systems helped ensure that the signs worked well immediately.
How FlowControl brings traffic, parking and display information together
At the time of publication, Be-Mobile collected proprietary traffic data, including GPS positions from 40 million vehicles, and processed it into traffic information. Reports from road users through navigation apps such as Flitsmeister, open data and information from Touring Mobilis' traffic centre were also collected and processed.
For the Ghent project, these sources were supplemented with data from the Ghent open-data portal. The legacy story states that this gave Be-Mobile an almost complete picture of the city's current traffic situation.
More complete communication with the displays
A new communication and data exchange was established with Q-lite to obtain more complete technical information and alerts from the displays. According to the legacy story, this enabled faster and more stable communication and supported quicker detection of technical problems or defects.
One platform for traffic and parking guidance
The information is brought together in Be-Mobile's FlowControl platform. FlowControl unites traffic applications such as dynamic traffic and parking guidance in one environment. City and mobility information from Ghent is linked in a uniform way, enabling the city to combine its own information with third-party data and configure scenarios that distribute relevant parking and traffic information to road users and other stakeholders through the displays. Ghent Mobility Company also received an interactive dashboard for monitoring both the traffic and mobility situation and the technical status of the displays.
From customer requirements to a tested operational system
FlowControl was adapted and extended according to the customer's requirements. During regular software meetings, those requirements and expectations were clarified and refined.
At the same time, Q-lite built the digital LED displays. After extensive testing and official approval of the platform, Jacops completed the installation.
How the new guidance system supports traffic flow and liveability
A traffic-guidance system helps visitors identify which parking garages still have available capacity. Without such guidance, more drivers may search for parking and place additional pressure on on-street parking capacity.
The legacy story states that correct occupancy information helps road users reach the appropriate destination more quickly and efficiently, supporting the city's liveability goals.
Following the project's completion, Ghent had new digital LED displays controlled by a flexible and modular system. The current traffic situation could be monitored 24/7 on a map and through notifications.
During the system's first month, it was immediately used during the Ghent Winter Festivities, one of the busiest periods of the year. The legacy story states that traffic was successfully guided by the new system during that period.
Be-Mobile described the cooperation positively and expressed its commitment to supporting its home city in pursuing its policy objectives and its transition towards a greener and safer city.
“With the new displays, traffic can be better directed. Motorists are directed to the desired and available car parks. This way we avoid search traffic. In this way we also want to solve the traffic jams at the entrance to the car parks, which obstruct the flow of public transport. The displays are very flexible, we can put up messages for all road users.”
Traffic Management
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