Transportation is a captivating and complex domain, interconnecting a multitude of technologies, individual choices, and unpredictable events. All of this takes place within the intricate web of political, social, and economic influences, forming a dynamic and multifaceted landscape. Since 40% of the population is thought to spend an average of at least one hour on the road each day due to the rapid growth of transportation networks, traffic has substantially impacted our quality of life.
This industry produces huge amounts of data which have not been fully utilised. Currently, a shift has been observed in the rise of the domain of data analytics, where descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics as well as the use of ML models, have been employed in order to derive useful conclusions and insights. For this purpose, we have been witnessing a rise of interactive dashboards, where (big) data and the results of their processing are visualised in intuitive Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs), enabling transport operators to make complex decisions faster and more efficiently.
Big data visualisation refers to the process of turning a large amount of urban data into information that can be used for better decision-making and in-depth understanding of a variety of urban domains, including transportation, mobility, traffic, environment, energy, land use, waste management, education, healthcare, public safety, and governance.
Traffic management is undergoing an unprecedented transformation as it enters a new era where connectivity becomes seamless while a multitude of services and business models are shifting the market landscape. Agencies and organisations use some or all of these dashboard types for both internal and external needs and purposes. Dashboards may be standalone products or designed to complement existing processes and procedures.
Visualisation Tables, charts, and graphs all display data series information and almost all users are familiar with these visualisation styles and can quickly understand the data by reviewing the different data axes. This is a technique that has existed for decades across multiple disciplines and still provides one of the most reliable methods for communicating information to users. The increase in the use of smartphones, GIS, and navigation apps has greatly expanded the use of maps for everyday visualisation. Some visualisations that can be extended from maps include the following:
- Colouring the roadway to indicate the status of the road in terms of speed or travel time reliability.
- Labelling the roadway with icons to indicate the existing, location, and status of traffic incidents.
- Indicating roadway assets with customizable messages such as DMS that provide a quick glance of relevant information about the road network.
- Overlaying other relevant spatial information and landmarks such as community features, restaurants, or other points of interest.
- Displaying navigation routes to guide users to or from a location.
Even though there is a multitude of dashboards in the market and currently in use in the transport domain, they are predominately addressed to one stakeholder, thus not facilitating cross-stakeholder collaboration for a holistic management of the transport network at the corridor level. This lack of interaction between operators could deteriorate the quality of service both for traffic management and network users. The H2020 FRONTIER project aims to fill this gap. The Network and Traffic Management dashboard developed in the project by Frontier Innovations, an IT focused and research-oriented SME based in Athens, Greece, is the centralized point which enables situational awareness across different a stakeholders involved in traffic and network management, while providing collaborative traffic management functionalities. This enables stakeholders to stay informed about current network activities, even if these are not directly related to their responsibilities. It also facilitates collaboration among stakeholders to collectively develop appropriate response plans for mitigating the impact of network incidents and other events.
The FRONTIER dashboard is a big step forward future traffic management. It combines modern technology, data analytics, ML, AI and a focus on user experience. As we move into a time of better connections and changing markets, tools like FRONTIER show how new ideas can really improve the world of transportation.
(Photo by Aleksejs Bergmanis: https://www.pexels.com/el-gr/photo/681334/)