PTV Group is one of the finalists of the European IT & Excellence Awards 2014. The German software vendor entered with a customer project that deals with modelling cyclists in detail using the microsimulation tool PTV Vissim. The way PTV Group tailored the existing solution due to the customer’s needs convinced the jury to nominate PTV Vissim for the “Mobility Solution of the Year” award. The winners will be announced by IT Europa on 26 March 2014 in London
Many cities are envious of the way the City of Copenhagen has encouraged and promoted sustainable bicycle travel. It comes as no surprise that the Danish capital has set itself the goal of becoming the world’s most bicycle-friendly city. New infrastructure, green waves, parking areas, improved travel times and increased capacity on frequently used cycle paths should help turn the vision into reality. The city called on the Danish consulting group COWI for help with technical preparation and implementation. Because Copenhagen has been using PTV Vissim software previously to simulate motorized traffic, it was an obvious step to integrate bicycle traffic into the model in order to be able to work with an all-in-one solution.
As part of the project PTV Group has significantly improved the ability to accurately simulate the behaviour of cyclists and the interaction with other modes of transport. “For modelling the correct right-turn behaviour we added a compliance rate for cyclists to the Vissim model. This ensures that the software also simulates even right-turning on a red light and the effects on the other traffic can be evaluated”, describes Miller Crockart, Vice President Sales & Marketing Traffic Software at PTV Group. “Thanks to enhancements in the software’s parameters, we were able to simulate with PTV Vissim the behaviour of cyclists and the situations on the road realistically”, adds Søren Frost, Traffic Modelling and Simulation Expert at COWI.
