Final Report Summary - OPTIMUM (Optimised ITS-based Tools for Intelligent Urban Mobility) The OPTIMUM project has been initiated by three leading research teams collaborate with the aims at developing innovative solutions for intelligent urban mobility to address the urban mobility challenges. The collaborating partners have complementary expertise and common vision and interest for ITS research. The partners involved are two European institutions (EPFL, IFSTTAR) and one Australian university (QUT). The project addressed its research goals by dividing the research into three research oriented working groups (WG) as follows: • Integrated real time traffic information WG focuses on development of methodologies for: a) short-term travel time prediction for different modes and networks; b) travel time variability; and c) real time multimodal travel traveller information and real time routing.• Network efficiency and Weather impact modelling WG focuses on a) optimising the observability of urban traffic systems; b) understanding and assessing the effects of adverse weather conditions on road networks; and d) developping response strategy to mitigate the impacts of weather on road networks.• Cooperative traffic management WG focuses on a) Active traffic management algorithms such as coordinated ramp metering, VSL etc. b) Traffic signal optimization; and d) Traffic simulation modelling for testing and evaluating emerging cooperative systems.To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the project was designed to harmonise the research program by exchange of information, ideas, resources etc. This way of learning has demonstrated to be effective and enhances the research capabilities of each partner thanks to the exchange of researchers with specialised knowledge. The collaboration provided a high visibility of the research activities and a mutual understanding of the interests of each group, which results in avoiding the duplication of work. Hence, this cross-border exchange strengthens the collaboration and mutual understanding and opens new possibilities to promote new directions for the application of ITS systems. The OPTIMUM project has brought together researchers with complementary expertise. They have formed an enthusiastic international network of experts, actively working on several aspects of ITS and traffic modelling and management.The main scientific output generated by the OPTIMUM project is a better knowledge of all the mechanisms governing the on-set of congestion, new methods for network-wide performance monitoring and control as well as how cooperative systems and adverse weather impact on transport networks performances. Besides, training of ESR is one of the most tangible assets of the project.
