Transport for London (TfL) is to use a simulation technology for predicting the impact of roadworks before they take place.
It has agreed on contracts with transport technology specialist Immense and Samdesk, provider of a disruption monitoring platform, to deploy their technologies in an effort to minimise the disruption to traffic.
Immense will create a dedicated application for TfL, working with planners and network impact specialists to understand the steps taken in evaluating works. The company said this will enable non-specialists to appraise roadworks, using a browser based application to test different configurations and co-ordination strategies.
The platform should make it possible to simulate the movements of different vehicles and understand how traffic is rerouted and affected by roadworks over the course of a day. It will include key measures such as journey times and vehicle emissions.
Tackling challenges
Natalia Vittoratou, product manager for Immense, said: “This tool will help TfL stakeholder groups, from operational to technical teams, tackle the challenges of undertaking a rapid evaluation whilst increasing the evidence base available.
“We are excited for the next steps of the programme in the coming months, where we will start enhancing our Immense platform in order to support the RoadLab application.”
The initiative comes from TfL’s RoadLab programme, launched in 2019, under which it invited ideas for technology to make roadworks in London safer and smarter. It has been funded by the Lane Rental scheme that charges roadworks companies for digging up roads at times that cause the most disruption.
Image from iStock, Howard_M
