Successful pilot in Cologne helps city to predict traffic

Cologne, Germany, has successfully completed a pilot programme that predicts where traffic will go. Using predictive analytics the city believes the technology could help motorists anticipate, better manage, and in many cases, avoid traffic jams and trouble spots across the city.

Technology company IBM worked with Cologne’s traffic engineers to analyse data from its traffic monitoring stations along the left bank of the Rhine river for a period of six weeks with the aid of the company’s Traffic Prediction Tool. The results, which compare the accuracy of the traffic prediction tool to the real-time data, revealed the accuracy of short-term forecasting for 30 minutes ahead to be 94 percent for vehicle speed and 87 percent for the volume of traffic.

“The traffic prediction pilot results are very encouraging,” said Thomas Weil, Director of the Cologne Traffic Control Centre. “Having the ability to create actionable insight from the traffic monitoring data gives us an ability to better manage congestion as well as provide citizens with more precise traffic information. Our Traffic Command Centre would be able to optimise current traffic flow while anticipating and planning for potential traffic incidents.”

As Germany’s fourth largest city with growing traffic congestion and density, Cologne’s city leaders are looking at new ways to increase capacity and efficiencies from their transport networks within the constraints of their infrastructure.

“As one of the first congestion-prone large cities to do so, Cologne has taken an important step in the right direction with this project,” said Eric-Mark Huitema, IBM Smarter Transportation leader, Europe. “Intelligent traffic management based on precise forecasting techniques can help cities anticipate and avoid traffic congestion and possibly reduce the volume of traffic, resulting in a more sustainable transportation network.”

Cologne’s traffic command centre currently collects real-time data from more than 150 monitoring stations and 20 traffic cameras on the roads, highways and busy intersections. City officials believe that the pilot will assist in procuring an advanced traffic management tool to forecast what traffic will be like in the near future.