"ITS4Culture" - Digitalisation of traffic management
Project to be presented for the first time at the symposium and launched in the Capital of Culture year 2025
On Thursday, 14 November, the "ITS4Cultur" project for the digitalisation of traffic management in the city of Chemnitz will be presented to the public for the first time at the 12th Municipal Conference of the Association of Road Construction and Transport Engineers in the Free State of Saxony (VSVI) at the Mittweida hydroelectric power plant.
As part of the "Digitalisation of municipal transport systems" funding guideline from the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport (BMDV), the City of Chemnitz's transport and civil engineering department received a grant, meaning that planning for this funding project could begin at the end of June. It will be realised in the European Capital of Culture year next year. The title "ITS4Culture" also emphasises the fact that innovative engineering services are an essential part of Chemnitz's culture.
The focus of the project is the digitalisation of traffic management along the entire route of the ring bus line 82, which is why the 40 traffic lights there are being equipped with so-called roadside units. These are special radio modules that will ensure communication between the traffic lights and the vehicles in future, thus enabling new services to be offered. In addition to the existing public transport acceleration, other important information can be exchanged so that, for example, buses are only accelerated when the current timetable situation actually requires it.
Furthermore, the acceleration measures will not be limited to public transport alone. Among other things, emergency vehicles on their way to an emergency will be able to request their priority at the traffic lights in order to reach their destination more quickly by dynamically adjusting the signalling times.
Another new service will be a so-called traffic light phase assistant. The aim here is to predict the green phases of traffic lights so that this information can be used for efficient and comfortable driving. The assistant either shows drivers the optimum speed for reaching the green phase or informs them that they will not reach the next set of traffic lights in time during the green phase and can therefore reduce their speed.
Overall, the use of the new technologies lays the foundation for urban traffic lights to be able to exchange information and cooperate with all road users in the future. Cyclists and pedestrians will also be integrated in further steps. Ultimately, communication between traffic lights and vehicles is a fundamental requirement on the road to autonomous driving.
CVAG is involved as a project partner of the Transport and Civil Engineering Department. The Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI Dresden and Ingenieurgesellschaft für Straßenverkehr Schlothauer und Wauer Dresden/Berlin are providing specialist and technical support.
The total costs for the project will amount to around 3.3 million euros, with 65 per cent of the required funds being provided by the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport (BMDV) as part of the funding measure.