Objective
QUARTET PLUS is pursuing demonstration activities on integrated road transport environments (IRTEs) in urban areas. IRTEs are concerned among others with telematics applications for cooperative transport monitoring and control to achieve a balance between public demand for mobility and the level of services. Project trials in six urban sites will aim to show that IRTEs can structure and boost the cost-effectiveness of these applications to promote public transport and upgrade travel information, with significant benefits for travellers, travel operators, urban authorities and others.
Transport Telematics applications must be implemented in the urban environment to achieve equilibrium between the user's demand for mobility and the level of service of the transportation network. In an Integrated Road Transport Environment (IRTE) any applications that change the traffic and transport state must be prepared to react to the very changes they introduce, and no single application can afford to operate in isolation. The greater the effects are that are introduced by the new applications, the greater is the need for an efficient collaboration between applications in elaborating and actuating control strategies.
Previous field trials in the Third Framework Programme have demonstrated the technical, operational and organisational feasibility of the QUARTET integration principles of cooperative monitoring, equilibrium planning and cooperative control. These principles form the basis for the IRTE and were developed, implemented and tested in the QUARTET Field Trials.
IRTE's have been or are being implemented in all six of the main sites of QUARTET PLUS, in Athens, Göteborg, Stuttgart, Turin, Toulouse and the West Midlands region. These sites will stage a series of extensive, long-term trials, permitting a definitive validation of impacts to be made in the course of the project. The results of these trials are expected to show significant benefits for end users, authorities, operators and industry. The sites are united by the common belief that transport telematics applications must be introduced in a structured way in the urban environment and that the IRTE can provide the optimal framework for introducing the new technologies in a cost-effective way. They maintain that rational use of the technologies can increase the proportion of travellers using public transport, reduce fuel consumption, improve both private and public transport efficiency, reduce the likelihood of air pollution episodes and improve the quality and quantity of information available to the traveller.
The assessments and recommendations emanating from the project will be reported and diffused to as wide an audience as possible. Open conferences will be organised in three cities to promote the results and provide demonstrations of the IRTE's to all interested actors. The literature and outreach activities constitute the main end products of the project, for which a very large audience is expected among decision-makers for urban transportation planning and development.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
10126 Torino
Italy