New traffic management centre goes into operation
Completion of the EU funding programme for the urban traffic management system
The City of Chemnitz's new traffic management centre was officially inaugurated on 2 September in the presence of representatives of the State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport of the Free State of Saxony and the State Office for Road Construction and Transport and presented to the city councillors of the Planning, Building and Environment Committee and the public.
The overall project was completed on schedule at the end of April. Following the fine adjustments that have since been made during ongoing operations, the new traffic management centre has now been officially put into operation.
This marks the completion of the implementation of an EU funding programme for the development of the city's traffic management system, which has been running since 2012.
The basic objective of the gradual introduction of an integrated regional traffic management system (Chemnitz Traffic Management System, CVM) is to utilise the capacities of the city's existing traffic facilities even better overall by means of intelligent traffic management. The focus here is on promoting environmentally friendly modes of transport. For example, the traffic flow on various routes in the city was organised in such a way that local public transport buses and trams are given priority and are therefore faster and more punctual. The implementation of the programme was also intended to promote cycling and pedestrian traffic and improve road safety.
Once all measures have been completed, the costs for the overall project will total 3.6 million euros, with the European Union having disbursed 2.4 million euros in grants from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The tasks of the traffic management centre include monitoring and controlling traffic flows and the operation of traffic technology systems. To this end, the centre is staffed by one employee at a time from 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. in shifts. In addition, the traffic engineers from the civil engineering department have access to the control centre for various tasks. These include the remote supply of the control units of all connected traffic light systems, the evaluation and processing of traffic data for a quality analysis of the traffic control systems and the ongoing optimisation of the control programmes with regard to both the acceleration of local public transport and the coordination of individual traffic.
In addition to the construction of the traffic management centre for the Chemnitz region , the development of the CVM also included a series of route-related signalling measures with the aim of speeding up the rail and bus routes in the Chemnitz city area that are important for traffic. The equipment of the affected traffic light systems was largely modernised.
The package of measures includes demand-led, traffic-dependent switching for public transport, such as the introduction of special phases and the adaptation of green waves. At the central stop, the aim was also to optimise the internal processes in public transport, e.g. with regard to special programmes for rendezvous traffic.
All these improvements not only have a positive impact on the speed of buses and trams, but above all on the punctuality and reliability of public transport connections.
As public transport itself also benefits from an overall coordinated traffic flow, public transport acceleration is not the same as abandoning the existing green waves in the urban area. These will continue to form the basis of the control programmes, but there will be much more frequent temporary interventions as a result of bus and train requests. Particularly at traffic junctions where competing public transport vehicles are concentrated, there may then be temporary restrictions for individual motor vehicle traffic.
These measures have been implemented in detail:
| Measure designation | Completion date in the year |
|---|---|
| Acceleration of tram line 4, Stollberger Straße with the traffic lights Stollberger/W.-Sagorski-Straße Stollberger/South ramp Stollberger/North ramp Stollberger/Scheffelstraße Stollberger/Fr. Hähnel Street Stollberger/Street Usti nad Labem | 2012 |
| Increasing traffic safety in the Müllerstraße corridor with the traffic lights Müller-/Promenadenstraße Müller-/Nordstraße Müller-/Mühlenstraße Zöllnerplatz Wilhelm-Külz-Platz | 2012 |
| Acceleration of tram line 4, Stollberger Straße with the traffic lights Stollberger/Joh.-Reitz-Straße Stollberger/Irkutsker Straße Stollberger/R.-Wagner-Straße Stollberger/Haydnstraße | 2013 |
| Acceleration of bus line 21, Fürsten- to Frankenberger Str. with the traffic lights Dresdner/Fürstenstraße Palm-/Hainstraße Dresdner/Frankenberger Straße Frankenberger Straße/Margaretenstraße | 2013 |
| Acceleration of bus route 21 with the traffic lights Zschopauer/Lutherstraße | 2013 |
| Acceleration of bus line 51, A.-Bebel-Straße to H.-Schütz-Straße with the traffic lights A.-Bebel/Hilbersdorfer Straße Thomas-Mann-Platz Palm-/Hainstraße Heinrich-Schütz-Straße/Zietenstraße Heinrich-Schütz-Straße/Planitzwiese | 2013 |
| Acceleration of tram lines 5, 6 (522), Annaberger Straße with the traffic lights Bahnhof-/Annaberger Straße Annaberger/Moritzstraße Annaberger/Annenstraße Annaberger/Rößlerstraße | 2014 |
| Optimisation of traffic flow at the central stop with the traffic lights Central stop Bahnhofstraße/Bretgasse | 2014 |
| Acceleration of bus line 31 with the traffic lights Barbarossa/Henriettenstraße West/Barbarossastrasse Limbacher/Barbarossastrasse Beyer-/Paul-Jäkel-Straße | 2014 |
| Acceleration of bus line 21, Frankenberger Straße with the traffic lights Frankenberger/Helmholtzstraße Frankenberger/Huttenstraße | 2014 |
| Acceleration of bus line 21, Leipziger Straße with the traffic lights Leipziger/Donauwörther Straße Leipziger/Heidelberger Straße Leipziger/Fr.-Schlöffel-Straße Leipziger/Bornaer Straße Leipziger/L.-Otto-Straße Leipziger/Wittgensdorfer Straße Leipziger/Bürgerstraße Leipziger/Glauchauer Straße Leipziger/Winklerstraße Leipziger/Salzstraße Leipziger/Hartmannstraße Hartmann-/Bergstraße | 2015 |
| Acceleration of tram lines 4,6 (522) in the course of Straße der Nationen, central stop - main railway station with the traffic lights Straße der Nationen/Brückenstraße Straße der Nationen/Carolastraße Station/Carolastrasse | 2015 |