As every year, close to the summer holidays, traffic bulletins are announced. The movements of the last weekends have been intense, especially those of last weekend, August 5th. But now there's mid-August and then the great counter exodus of the comebacks, expected above all in the last two Sundays of August and for the first weekend of September, that of the 2-3. But will it always be so tiring to move for the holidays? Kapsch TrafficCom, a company specializing in traffic management solutions, anticipates what are the technologies that will make departures less stressful for us. Beyond self-driving cars, for which according to analysts we will have to wait for 2030, many solutions are already a reality or very close to being applied.
Goodbye to toll booths, barriers and slow lanes
If the telepass has represented a revolution, reducing the queues at the toll booths, the systems defined as multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) will do more by completely avoiding the bottlenecks that arise in the days of the great summer exodus. In place of the barriers (as expensive as they are cumbersome) there will be portals, similar to those already used for tutors, which equipped with video cameras record the passage of vehicles and thanks to transmitters they communicate with the devices installed on cars and trucks by charging the relative toll. Drivers will only hear a simple beep from their vehicle's OBU, but they won't need to slow down at barriers and this will eliminate the delays and queues that currently occur at toll booths. This solution also allows the agents to intervene in the event of an infringement.
Radio wave systems that communicate with toll payment portals could also pave the way for further functionalities. As send useful traffic information or report accidents and obstacles along the way. It could even be the vehicles in transit themselves that inform the portals (and therefore the data processing centres) of any dangerous situations such as punctures and breakdowns that require intervention, or the presence of ice on the asphalt.
Furthermore, if there are several roads, this system recognizes exactly the one we have traveled on, immediately distributing the toll to the various motorway operators. This solution it will also allow you to proactively manage traffic, discounting tariffs to promote off-peak road use, such as days before and after weekends or at night.
Finally, these portals are not bulky, so they can be easily installed to create new junctions. Science fiction? No, they are already a reality in many European countries, such as Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland and in the rest of the world they are used in the United States, Chile and Australia. In Europe they are already in line with the European Directive, which requires the toll to be calculated on the km actually traveled (which will lead to the elimination of systems based, for example, on vignettes). Furthermore, the case of the Czech Republic, where the system was paid off by toll revenues after only 6 months from the start of operations, demonstrates that the transition to this type of system can take place easily.
Password: integration between urban and interurban traffic management
The same type of technology used on motorways is already integrated and will increasingly be integrated for the management of mobility in the city. For example, smaller portals can be installed to measure average speed even in cities, as well as manage access to restricted traffic areas. A curiosity: few know that Italy was the first to invent restricted traffic zones, created to protect the historical and cultural heritage of our towns. And if large cities are now equipped with automated solutions for traffic management, we will see these technologies increasingly widespread even in small city centers, especially in the villages and seaside cities of southern Italy that need to manage the peak visits during the summer season.
Smart mobility is around the corner
But how long will we have to wait to manage mobility on holiday – and throughout the year – in a more intelligent way? “Although many of the technologies are already available, the legislation in some cases is not yet updated. Let's take the example of self-driving cars, they're already a reality, but in many countries they couldn't even leave the garage,” he explains Paolo Rondo-Brovetto, president of Kapsch TrafficCom Italia. “We already have the technologies to improve the quality of life and safety on the roads. Institutions and companies should co-operate more closely to make all this possible”.
