The goals of ITS Edulab’s research are the same goals that the Dutch Ministry of Transport established in 2006 in its Mobility Policy Document: an improved traffic situation on the road network, higher traffic safety and a better quality of the living environment (lower emission levels, less noise and air pollution).
The most important means that Rijkswaterstaat, the operator of the main road network, has at its disposal to reach these goals, are traffic management (including traffic information and incident management), road pricing, and road construction and maintenance. These themes are also well covered in the ITS Edulab research program.
The focus in these research topics is on how to use the measures in such a way that the above mentioned goals can be reached.
Demand management
Traffic flow conditions is a balance between demand and supply. Demand management is about how the demand of traffic can be influenced. That can be related to the total demand, or the distribution of demand over the day. Read More
Incident management
Incident management consists of all those measures that contribute to the fast and safe handling of incidents. Apart from the organizational aspects, subjects such as incident detection, estimation of incident duration and benefits of incident management belong to this topic. Read More
Remaining topics
Any other research question that does not belong to one of the other research topics, fits in here. One can think of the applicability and validation of traffic simulation models or the influence of weather conditions on traffic. Read More
Road construction and maintenance
Both road construction and road maintenance first cause delay and other inconveniences before the road user can profit. For example, for maintenance it is important to know what the effects of a road closure or reduction of the capacity are and if traffic management or mobility management measures can help to reduce the expected problems. Read More
Road pricing
Road pricing is a traffic management measure for the near future. Important aspects of road pricing, which are still in research, are implementation and the effects. Read More
Safety and sustainability
A higher safety and a better sustainability are important goals of the Dutch traffic and transport policy. Improving safety and sustainability are also important aspects in traffic management, although it is difficult to estimate or measure effects. Also, the inclusion of safety and sustainability indicators in traffic models is an area to develop. Read More
Traffic information
Traffic information deals with all aspects related to informing the road user before and during his trip. The topic includes the way traffic information is generated from traffic data, the distribution of traffic information and the effects on the traffic itself. Also, organisation of the information chain is an important aspect. Read More
Traffic management
Traffic management is a broad topic, concerned with all measures and aspects to influence and control traffic flows in a network. Traffic control is an important part of this topic, but also the advantages and disadvantages of new detection methods and the development and fine-tuning of algorithms using simulation. Read More