Overview
For years, the demand for multimodal transport data increased constantly, both for engineering and planning issues as well as in connection with politics, environment, finances (taxes), or for the statistics in general. All these needs call for an efficient and simple database management and preparation.
Currently, there are ongoing efforts on national level in that direction (STRADA-DB, national multimodal traffic database), the emphasis lying on solutions for a national transport data "portal" (i.e. an information platform which informs the users where to find relevant transport data). But these attempts are not simply applicable to local conditions for different reasons.
The city of Zug was taken as an example. The objective of the project is a development of a system for collecting, managing and updating of traffic data in the fields of public transport , slow traffic, stationary traffic and accidents, which is tailored to local needs. Further objective is the implementation of the system on the basis of a pilot application and assessment of the general applicability of the findings to small-scale applications.
First, the user needs for mobility data and the available data sets were recorded and structured. In a next step, database sketches were developed and finally, a pilot application was carried out.
Funding
Results
The results of the research assignment enable municipalities, who strive to improve their mobility data management, to choose and implement an appropriate solution early on. In this way, the extensive loops, as were necessary in the case of the city of Zug, can be avoided.
The final report also contains support for municipalities concluding that a comprehensive database will suit their needs better than a mixture (partly database plus data “portal” linking the existing isolated applications together).
Finally, the solution for the mobility management for the city of Zug, is shown with all its advantages and disadvantages. The effort and the achievements of the carried out pilot phase are described as well. The chosen solution achieves an improved data management with minimal effort (update for Zug requires about 1 working week).
The actual solution for the mobility management in Zug consists of two simple MS-Excel databases:
- one database: a well-ordered filing for the frequently used or frequently requested road-based mobility data
- one “portal”: a list of the existing mobility data among the different departments within the city and the canton of Zug including all relevant contacts.