Finland‘s largest transport trial completed - road users obtained useful information about traffic disruptions
The trial, carried out by the Finnish Transport Agency, Trafi and HERE, with the aim to improve traffic safety, has now come to an end.
The trial, carried out by the Finnish Transport Agency, Trafi and HERE, with the aim to improve traffic safety, has now come to an end. According to the preliminary results, the majority of the participants in the trial found the application useful from a traffic safety perspective.
Test users participating in the NordicWay project and in its Finnish trial Coop, Connecting vehicles, were able to use a smartphone application to send information about traffic disruptions, such as blocked roads or road accidents. During the trial, information about obstructions or dangers on a participant’s route could be sent by other road users and road traffic management centres straight to the participant’s phone.
"The preliminary results certainly look positive. The active users of the application found that it improved traffic safety and the flow of traffic. In their opinion, the smartphone application was a successful tool for receiving warnings and for warning other road users about hazardous locations", says Project Manager Ilkka Kotilainen at the Finnish Transport Agency.
Disruption data transmitted between Nordic countries
NordicWay also comprised a successful inter-Nordic interoperability trial in the border regions of Sweden and Norway as well as Sweden and Denmark. In this trial, a roadworks and blocked road warning was transmitted between a service platform, vehicles and smartphone applications, as well as between the national traffic management centres of the Swedish and Danish road authorities. In addition to authorities and road users, the companies HERE, Volvo, Ericsson, Kapsch and Scania also participated in the trial. Infotripla Oy carried out the integration of the data transmission in the Finnish Coop trial with that of the interoperability trial.
"Projects like NordicWay provide us authorities with important information about how already existing data and peer feedback can improve traffic safety", says Leading Specialist Anna Schirokoff at Trafi.
In April and May, test users were sent surveys in which they were asked to assess the impact of the smartphone application on their driving. At the end of 2017, the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland will complete an impact study in which the impact of the trial on traffic will be described in more detail. The authorities will benefit from the upcoming results of the project when it comes to planning the future of similar services in Finland and Europe.
"Data production will become even more automated in the future, when disruption data will be generated by connected vehicles. The Nordic interoperability trial is a step towards even more extensive communication between road users, devices and machines in road traffic", say Kotilainen and Schirokoff.
The NordicWay Coop trial is part of the inter-Nordic, EU co-financed project, NordicWay, which has been granted further financing for 2017–2020 under the project name NordicWay 2. The Finnish Coop trial of the project was carried out from 2015–2017 in cooperation with the Finnish Transport Agency, Trafi, HERE and Infotripla Oy. Similar services are being developed in Finland, for example in reindeer management areas, where reindeer warnings are being tested in the trials Reindeer Coop and Porokello.
Further information
Finnish Transport Agency
Project Manager Ilkka Kotilainen, phone 050 311 8016, [email protected]
Twitter @ilkkakoti
Trafi
Leading Specialist Anna Schirokoff, phone 029 5345 268, [email protected]
Twitter @AnnaSchirokoff
NordicWay project: www.nordicway.net
Video on NordicWay interoperability: https://youtu.be/d9Et7NvWqLk
Porokello project: http://www.porokello.fi