The three modules of OmniTRANS Realtime

Module 1: The actual traffic situation

Module 1 provides insight into the current traffic situation for a geographically limited area, for example a municipality, region or province. This module offers enriched insights based on the extensive data set, but does not yet make predictions. The insights are generated as follows:

The first step consists of retrieving real-time data from traffic light loops at intersections, (national) roads, floating car data (FCD), bridge openings and information on matrix signs along and above the road. Connected automated vehicles will also be a data source in the future, based on their positions and speeds.
In the second step, these data are checked and projected onto a single network. If several data sources are available for one location, the data are combined in a smart way. Because we work with calculations per minute, we also aggregate the data to minute level.
In the third step, we bring all real-time data to a "common operational picture" of the current situation. This includes non-measured road sections by calculating them with a traffic model. In this way, we not only provide speed and intensity per road section, but also underlying information on traffic patterns, routes and travel times.

Module 2: The current traffic situation combined with forecasts

Module 2 provides insight into the current traffic situation and predictions up to one hour in advance. This module continues the results of module 1 and is therefore an extension of the previous module. Again, real-time data from various sources is retrieved, cleaned, combined and aggregated into reliable data. Also the addition of the traffic model to create the current traffic image is part of module 2. Module 2 is an extension of module 1 in the following ways:

Trends are also searched for in the data. Has the number of cars increased in the last few minutes, or has the intensity decreased? And how do we expect this to continue into the future? The answers to these questions are combined with the current traffic image, and with the help of the traffic model, the effect of this is calculated for the coming period. In addition to a traffic image for today, it is also possible to look into the future.
This gives a wide range of possibilities. In addition to effects in intensities and speeds, so-called "virtual patrols" provide insight into the traffic situation. Because this method detects possible traffic jams that will be resolved in a few minutes, or that are just starting, the calculation of travel times and route choice is much more accurate. Incident detection is also possible and is an interesting extra feature of OmniTRANS Realtime.

In the near future, we will be offering module 3: in addition to providing insights into current traffic situations and predictions, this module offers the possibility of calculating alternative scenarios and comparing them on KPIs. Module 3 thus offers the possibility to compare scenarios in order to choose the optimal traffic scenario for that moment.