types of vehicle, you don’t see the
license plates,” says Hollesch. “So
you don’t know whether it’s from
Hamburg or Berlin. They can make
out a person, but not if it’s a woman
or a man. The really low resolution
doesn’t allow identification of
individuals. We also only shoot
pictures every minute, so there’s
no video stream.”
The data will be available for
anyone to view on an Urban Data
Platform from late 2019. Many
different parties will benefit.
“The police in the traffic
management center will be able to
perceive problems on the roads a lot
faster,” says Hollesch. “If they see fewer
cars passing on the road than normal,
they can immediately ask questions.
Is there construction work going on?
Or has there been an accident? Or is it
because the traffic control is running
There aren’t the same
privacy issues because
although our cameras give enough
detail to know the types of vehicle,
you don’t see the license plates
Stefan Hollesch, portfolio manager, Hamburg
Traffic Systems
Thermal images of
vehicles are detailed,
while preserving
road-user privacy
Hamburg has one of
Europe’s most advanced
traffic management
centres (TMC), which was built
by Swarco in 2013 to cope with
the city’s congested traffic.
The most striking feature
of the TCC is the 4m by 6m
video wall, which consists of 24
LED cubes that display all the
cameras installed around the
city. The connected systems are
controlled via an “integrated
user interface” which is available
to all police officers working in
the TMC. It includes information
from the inner-city streets,
the federal highways, the port
district and the motorways.
The TMC follows a multiconsoling
strategy, which means
officers at every work station
have a comprehensive overview
of traffic and are able to access
all the cameras on the network.
Officers can transfer the images
on their consoles onto the LED
cubes for everyone to see, and
vice versa. Everyone has the
same right to intervene with
a camera at any time.
A striking feature of the
Hamburg TMC is the quiet
atmosphere, which workers say
helps them concentrate and
monitor traffic more accurately.
Technical solutions have been
found to create a sense of
calm such as building all walls
and glass panels with soundproof
surfaces and installing
soundless air conditioning units
inside the ceiling that operate
with no ventilation.
Meanwhile, all the
computer hardware has
| Traffic Management
been hidden away in separate
compartments behind a big
screen. The clever use of
ergonomic solutions extends to
coping with the steady stream
of visitors. For example, if the
traffic officers don’t wish to be
observed at work in the control
room, a button can be pressed
that makes the shutters opaque.
Advanced control
Hamburg’s traffic management center is the hub where all data from the
network is monitored, which will soon include thermal camera data
the wrong program and more green
time is needed? Algorithms could
monitor the intersections and alert
traffic mangers when something
unusual is happening. The information
could be color coded to assess the
potential seriousness.”
Meanwhile, residents with live
access to intersection data will be
armed with more information so they
can plan journeys more reliably.
Private businesses will be able to
bring the data together with weather
data, or financial data, to produce
new algorithms. Academics
worldwide could gain access to use
the data in their ITS research.
“It’s so new that we don’t yet
know how many advantages it can
have to really know what is on the
street, or who might benefit from the
information,” Hollesch says.
PHOTOGRAPHS: YULIAB, 35MICROSTOCK, TOBIAS/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
No 1
Hamburg has the dubious
honor of being Germany’s
most congested city 2018,
pipping Berlin to the post
(Source: TomTom)
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November/December 2019 Traffic Technology International
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