Project news
Edit 22 November 2019

First test phase of the TMaaS traffic dashboard a the Gentse Feesten

First test phase of the TMaaS traffic dashboard a the Gentse Feesten
During the previous edition of the Gentse Feesten a new phase of TMaaS got underway and it was finally possible to test the dashboard.

In-depth testing by traffic managers
Every day of the Gentse Feesten, a traffic manager from the Mobility Company of the City of Ghent was present at the command post together with the fire brigade, the police and the emergency services. After all, around a million people visit Ghent over the ten days of the festival and that presents a multitude of organisational challenges. It was the ideal occasion therefore to carry out extensive tests of the first prototype of the TMaaS dashboard in its current form. Moreover, the City of Ghent invited all TMaaS partners to spend an evening in the control room and gain first-hand experience of how things work on the ground.
The dashboard testing continued throughout the duration of the Gentse Feesten. The traffic managers observed the data and checked on whether they were being alerted to situations such as accidents, etc. Monitoring accidents is after all, a very important task for traffic managers. In addition, they actively tested the various functions to remove any bugs. The tests were extremely practical: was there anything that appeared on maps that they were unable to explain? Are there elements that do not link to the correct data?

An enormous amount of data was visualised in the prototype of the dashboard:
•    data from TMaaS project partners TomTom, BE-Mobile and Waze (City of Ghent is a participant in the Waze “Connected Citizens Programme”) about traffic incidents and traffic density. This information is used, for example, to show the location of accidents on the map, together with the current traffic speed on certain roads or delays on the main traffic axes;
•    data from underground car parks (the number of parked cars in Ghent and the evolution of parking density over the last 24 hours) and the bicycle park facility at the Korenmarkt;
•    data from the Blue-bike (De Lijn) bicycle sharing points and the Trapido Ghent bicycle sharing Based on these data, traffic operators can see how many people are leaving Dampoort Station among others.
All these data are displayed on a dynamic map with colours. This indicates immediately to the operators which car parks were busy and where action needed to be taken. This might involve guiding cars to a park & ride via the notice boards, or by advising people to use public transport via Twitter. A page with graphs and indicators could then display any changes or the current status of the total number of cars in the car parks for instance.


More personalisation and interactivity 
The experiences of the traffic managers are already positive, even though the dashboard in its current phase is not ready for traffic management operations. One important observation concerns the map visualizations that were not entirely clear. The choices of colours to represent different incidents did not really indicate which situations were critical, and some incorrect data came up.
And finally it seems that too much information was provided, which made the map over-busy and cluttered. The real problems were not immediately obvious therefore.
The traffic managers also asked for more personalisation and interactivity. In the prototype the Grafana graphs and maps were reproduced on a static webpage. It was not yet possible to enlarge the graphs or move the widgets to create one’s own page with relevant information. That will be remedied for the next version of the dashboard.


Also tested by residents
The test resulted in 75 suggestions on which the TMaaS software development team, consisting of employees of different project partners, is now working to further optimise the dashboard. This step-by-step approach is characteristic of research projects.
In a few months, when the Winter festival in Ghent will attract thousands of visitors to the city, a new test will be carried out, in which Ghentians will also participate. However, the general public will have to be patient for a while longer as the official launch is planned for the spring of 2020.
 

Share

Other news from this project

TMaaS - Ghent

TMaaS Final Journal

The final version of the TMaaS project Journal...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility

TMaaS web article No 1 - TMaaS notifications for travellers

TMaaS web article No 1 - TMaaS notifications for travellers...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility

TMaaS web article No 4 - Interview with Sophie Gillaerts, the TMaaS project coordinator

TMaaS web article No 4 - Interview with Sophie Gillaerts, the TMaaS project coordinator...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility

TMaaS web article No 2 - TMaaS Replicator City program Part 1: process and results

TMaaS web article No 2 - TMaaS Replicator City program Part 1: process and results...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility

TMaaS web article No 5 - The TMaaS products

TMaaS web article No 5 - The TMaaS products ...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility
The TMaaS Project Journal No 4

The TMaaS Project Journal No 4

The present fourth edition of the TMaaS Journal aims to provide interested readers with information concerning the project’s final achievements and re...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility

TMaaS web article No 3 - TMaaS Replicator City program Part 2: lessons learnt

TMaaS web article No 3 - TMaaS Replicator City program Part 2: lessons learnt...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility
TMasS Journal 3: update on Ghent's project

TMasS Journal 3: update on Ghent's project

In the 3rd journal of the TMaaS project, the new UIA expert Evangelos Mitsakis dives into recent developments and major achievements of the project. ...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

tmaas mini documentary

3 years of TMaaS in images

TMaaS launches a short film capturing the stories of the project....

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility
tmaas final conf

TMaaS Final conference

Thursday 21 January - the time had finally come for the last TMaaS conference that marked the end of an exciting process that had lasted more than thr...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility
Tmaas pic 1

TMaaS & LINK.Gent from a public transport user's behavior perspective

In his first Zoom-In, UIA TMaaS expert Dr. Evangelos Mitsakis, presents an animated story that highlights the decisions that travelers need to take on...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility
Conference is final agreement of the TMaaS project

Conference is final agreement of the TMaaS project

On 21st January the TMaaS Project will conclude with a final conference entitled “A Story of Innovating Mobility Together”. Given the circumstances, i...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility
Adoption potential survey - what's the market potential for TMaaS solutions?

Adoption potential survey - what's the market potential for TMaaS solutions?

The TMaaS project is coming to an end after a long and exciting process. LINK.Gent, the platform that was designed by the consortium, is now operation...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Adoption potential survey

Adoption potential survey

The TMaaS project is coming to an end after a long and exciting process. LINK.Gent, the platform that was designed by the consortium, is now operation...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Mintlab Kevin Sanders

TMaaS recruits Ghentians to participate in user surveys

Users have played a crucial role in the TMaaS project right from the very first day. We involved them closely in the development of the LINK.Gent plat...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Urban mobility
Meet our new interactive mobility monitoring platform: Link.Gent  webinar for cities Thursday 14th of May

Meet our new interactive mobility monitoring platform: Link.Gent webinar for cities Thursday 14th of May

Link.Gent, the multi-modal traffic monitoring dashboard developed TMaaS, was launched in April. Link.Gent offers professional traffic managers of the ...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Major trial run of the virtual traffic system during the Gentse Feesten

Major trial run of the virtual traffic system during the Gentse Feesten

TMaaS, the developer of the digital traffic platform for the City of Ghent, will be carrying out a major trial run of its virtual dashboard during the...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

TMAaS journal

TMaaS Expert Journal: Get an update on what has been happening in the last 6 months

The 2nd TMaaS Journal accompanies the project in its past half year of progress. By giving an account of the main activities and achievements of each ...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

TMaaS mobility dashboard

Designing a mobility dashboard: features and considerations

When designing a mobility dashboard, you’ll to want to design something user-friendly and attractive, but above all you will want to create a tool tha...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Smart Belgium Award 2018

City of Ghent wins the Belfius Smart Belgium Award 2018 with TMaaS

On Wednesday 24 April in Brussels, the City of Ghent won the Belfius Smart Belgium Award 2018 in in the category ‘Smart Cities with a population of mo...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Replicator programme TMaaS

A webinar provides clarification about the TMaaS Replicator City Programme

TMaaS recently launched a call to cities worldwide to register for the TMaaS Replicator City Programme. This autumn, three selected cities will have t...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Ghent TMaaS zoom-in

Wider stakeholder engagement is at the heart of TMaaS

The approach adopted by the Partnership entails reaching out to different stakeholder groups in multiple moments throughout the project....

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

TMaS replicator programme

TMaaS launches Open Call for Replicator Cities worldwide

TMaaS launched a call for cities worldwide to submit their applications to join the TMaaS Replicator City Programme. In this programme, which will lau...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Journal 1

TMaaS UIA Expert Journal – Learn more on how the city of Ghent aims to better manage the urban mobility system

UIA Expert, Sofia Taborda, gives a first look on how the project is being implemented ...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Civitas award

Ghent receives prestigious award for TMaaS project

Our city has been recognised, alongside eight European towns and cities, for its innovative urban mobility strategy at the 2018 CIVITAS Awards ceremon...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

TMaaS and CitiCAP projects

Ghent-Lahti: a tale of two cities

On May 24th we welcomed a delegation from the Finnish CitiCAP project, which, like TMaaS, focuses on smart city mobility. We had an interesting and u...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium

Tmaas

Getting citizens on board: the first TMaaS citizen research project

We recently launched an online call for citizens to participate in the first TMaaS citizen research project that focuses on the mobility behaviour of ...

TMaaS - Traffic Management as a Service (Closed)

Urban mobility

Ghent - Belgium