Objective
The main objectives of the MELYSSA project are to improve significantly road transport efficiency, safety and environment by enhancing traffic information and its provision to all road users; and to provide a mechanism for testing a variety of ATT applications developed in part DRIVE I in pilot projects.
Technical approach
The test site for the MELYSSA project is the motorway corridor between Stuttgart (German test site), Lyon (French test site) with its extension to Spain. Thus, this corridor plays an important role in the major motorway links between Northern and Southern Europe. Both the city of Stuttgart and the city of Lyon are involved in the POLIS initiative so that the corridor between these cities offers an excellent field test for an extension of urban traffic management to inter-urban traffic management.
The first phase of the project consisted of a comprehensive common feasibility study carried out as a joint project of mostly German and French partners. The core of this feasibility study comprised the examination of the potential to realise an exchange of traffic data and information concerning the corridor between Lyon and Stuttgart.
The feasibility study defined the most viable applications for the subsequent phases taking into consideration the assessment criteria of efficiency, safety, driver assistance and environment.
During the feasibility phase this project investigated and assessed the following applications (1) and technologies (2):
(1) Inter-connection of European traffic control centres, inter-connection of urban and inter-urban traffic control centres, pre-trip/at-stop and on-trip information, dual mode route guidance, establishment of an integrated network management system including operational links with urban traffic, transport applications developed by the POLIS projects, and freight and fleet management.
(2) Construction of a static and dynamic data base, traffic modelling, forecasting, video image processing, electronic data interchange, traffic control and information centres, traffic control via VMS, dynamic traffic management, RDS/TMC for driver information and route guidance, cellular radio systems, videotex, radio telephone, and public information terminals.
The second phase of the project will include the detailed system design and full scale implementation to test the performance of RTI systems within field trials. The evaluation and recommendation phase will be the final work of the project. However, the evaluation tasks will start at the beginning of the design phase.
The project deals with three areas of major interest: a) Integrated inter-urban traffic management, b) Travel and traffic information and c) Freight and fleet management. These work-areas provide an extensive scope of cooperation and collaboration for the different partners of the three countries. The project work emphasises strong correlation to preceding DRIVE I projects and consequently, the results of them - if available - have been incorporated or applied to the MELYSSA feasibility study and pilot projects. Moreover, links with recent DRIVE II/ATT projects have already been or will be set up in a few months.
Key issues
The key issues will be identification and assessment of ATT applications suitable for implementation on inter-urban sites, recommendations for future development and implementation of RTI systems, contribution to the establishment of standards for new technologies and applications between France, Germany and Spain, and by this the provision of guidelines for future European cross-border transport.
Expected achievements
The expected achievements vary, depending upon each workpackage.
For example, an improvement of data exchange between the Traffic Control Centres and the Traffic Information Centres in three countries is expected in order to better manage traffic.
Another expectation is a comparison between various automatic incident detection techniques, in order to improve safety and traffic efficiency.
Other technical workpackages will permit a better knowledge of driver behaviour; thus, infrastructure owners will invest in devices which are both more efficient and more efficiently utilised.
Two workpackages deal with in car information/guidance systems: full-scale implementation will provide a lot of technical as well as organisational results.
N.B. The examples above do not cover the entire scope of the project.
Expected impact
The first stage, the feasibility study, showed the possibilities for the introduction of several RTI systems and the enhancement of an international data exchange. This constitutes the basis for the implementation of the defined systems for the further process of the project to contribute to more transport efficiency, traffic safety and less environmental pollution.
Contribution to Standardisation
With the presence, in the Melyssa project consortium, of well-known industrial partners and with attendance at DRIVE Concertation Meetings, this project will substantially contribute to standardisation.
Fields of science
Topic(s)
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69674 Bron
France