ITS Equant, a project managed by the Valerann and Excelerate Technologies consortium and funded by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space Solutions, has been selected to deploy its traffic management solution for Milton Keynes Council.
The project’s space technology will be used to help manage traffic around the Milton Keynes (MK) Stadium during the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, which is taking place in England this month.
The event is expected to see an overall attendance of 525,000 people, with four of the games being hosted at the MK Stadium.
Large-scale events usually result in high numbers of pedestrians and passenger vehicles, which generate non-recurring road traffic congestion.
According to ITS Equant, properly managing movement and traffic by anticipating bottlenecks is critical for safety, efficient mobility, and emission reduction.
However, this can often be difficult without proper telecommunication capacities and adequate terrestrial communication infrastructure, which is said to be expensive.
For example advanced traffic management systems (ATMSs) have reportedly shown a 20% reduction in congestion and a 35% reduction in collisions, but deployments can cost more than £100,000 per kilometre.
The ITS Equant consortium claims to have developed a cost-effective satellite-enabled ATMS suitable for a range of deployments, from dense urban centres to rural communities.
The consortium claims that satellite communications-enabled CCTV cameras are a reliable source of road traffic data, which can be built upon by the AI-driven analytics platform and additional datasets to offer a comprehensive overview of a road in real time.
The additional data used by the system can come from floating cars, social media, mobile apps, and legacy sensors delivering a comprehensive overview of any road in real time.
Rita Rinaldo, head of the partner-led and thematic initiatives at ESA Space Solutions, said: “The solution proposed and implemented by Valerann is an excellent showcase of how integrated connectivity and data analytics can deliver innovation and help solving burning issues of municipalities and citizens.
“Increasing road safety, reducing congestion and CO2 emissions are challenges that are even more pressing on the occasion of events like the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022.
“The success of Valerann Intelligent Transport System in this context is a promising step towards future green and smart mobility.”
