The Finnish partners, who are also the project’s Lead partner, have chosen to use a research method to validate the results, which would allow them to ascertain the conclusions expressed and summarized after interviews with stakeholders.
A field study was done to do the traffic flow test and this was done by organizing a long vehicle tour. The trips took place in September 2020, traveling the same route three times to obtain objective data.
The truck drive started from the Turku port and stopped at Vaalimaa border control station between Finland and Russia and returned back to Turku port on the following day. The whole tour timing was planned to imitate real driving situation after the ferry has arrived to port of Turku.
The idea was to get own empirical evidence about the existing bottlenecs and delays along the corridor. For the documentation the special videocamera was used and special GIS-software to combine specific location with time to record driving time at roadsector. One of the cargo terminals was also visited during the trip. During the trips, interviews were also conducted with drivers to find out their views on the main problems in the corridor and how they think they could be solved.
Tours organization
The trips were organized on schedule. The first test trip took place in September,2020 and the next ones were scheduled for October, 2020. Ports and terminals will be surveyed in detail in October and November, 2020 to complete the present stay-of-art of delays and bottlenecs linked to them.
The tours were proceeded by four students of logistics and transportation which were doing both the driving and also did interviews with the real long vehicles` drivers.
The whole trip was 680 km long and it took nearly 9,5 hours to drive from Turku port to Vaalimaa border control.
Key findings
Tentatively the bottlenecks were linked with 1) road construction work and are technical but non-persistent at their nature, 2) traffic lights at certain junctions accesses to E-18 especially at the Helsinki RingRoad III but also somewhere else. Ring Road III is also very sensitive to road accidents causing traffic jams and 3) Resting areas are not properly planned for long vehicles. It is planned to expand the detailed analysis a little later.
Reccomendations and Solutions
The field survey investigations described above will form the basis for concrete recommendations about technical and non-technical solutions and how to break down the bottlenecks. It forms an important part to combine the whole picture concerning the corridor bottlenecks. The report consisting of data from test driving and terminal and port investigation will be ready soon.
This time we invite you to read about the outcomes of the
survey in three transport corridors.
Qualitative data from interviews and surveys with
stakeholders have been collected – interesting information is expected to help
reduce barriers to the smooth flow of transport and save time spent on the way.
We also invite you to read about the latest activities in the project, because, despite the difficult conditions created by the situation with Covid-19, the work continues.
A field survey was conducted with real-time test drives to
check and detect bottlenecks in a particular transport corridor (Youtube
video). Work is also underway on the development of various planning documents,
as well as a number of face-to-face and online meetings and seminars.
Sometimes solving problems will require significant changes in the system, other times it is just necessary to come together and think creatively.
On September 22, a valuable working session took place in Riga within the framework of the international project Baltic Loop. Discussion participants from state and municipal institutions, Riga planning region and industry experts created a SWOT analysis on how to reduce traffic bottlenecks and hindrances. The work will continue in the next sessions but in the meantime some good lessons from the discussion!
Strengths
Strengths:
Clearly understood policy planning system in Latvia
Cooperation between the administration of the Riga planning region and the local governments of the region in all areas, incl. in the transport sector
Inter-ministerial working groups to address specific issues in the transport sector
A common vision for integration into the Single European Transport Area
Opportunities
Options:
Exploiting the research and development (R&D) potential of higher education and research institutions in transport planning
Identification and use of examples of good practice from Europe and other countries of the world in the Latvian transport sector
Use of synergies of EU cross-border as well as other projects in the development of the Latvian transport system
Experience in dealing with emergencies (Covid-19) and increasing the speed of decision-making
Development of smart and environmentally friendly technologies and their impact on the development of the transport sector
Weaknesses
Congestion with policy planning documents, frequent amendments to legislation
Lack of vision/strategy for overall long-term transport development
Rapid staff turnover at the decision-making level, which makes communication difficult
Non-systematic cooperation between public administration and academic environment (use of research results)
Threats
Lack of common policies and measures at the level of EU Member States, including to eliminate the consequences of Covid-19
Developments in unforeseen political events in the Eastern neighbor countries and the impact on international transport flows
The unpredictability of the Latvian legal environment (changes)
On September 15, Vidzeme Planning Region organized an online seminar “TRAFFIC AND DATA. What can we get? How to use it?” to update the importance of data in the development of the transport sector, as well as to outline how it is practically possible to obtain data, how to collect it, and how to use it meaningfully. The online workshop brought together around 50 participants who had the opportunity to hear the experiences of four knowledgeable industry professionals on the possibilities of using the data.
The seminar was organized within the framework of the Baltic Loop project.
It’s all about data available in a portable format
Mikus Jēkabsons (Public Services Department), a representative of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development, emphasized that data is an increasingly important resource. He reminded once again what open data is and in what formats it can be found. The data is used by a very wide range of professionals, from journalists and researchers to entrepreneurs to develop new products and services, as well as to enable institutions to work more efficiently, including to save money. A broader insight into the opportunities provided by the open data portal data.gov.lv was provided. M. Jēkabsons has observed that both state institutions and local governments often lack an understanding of how to distinguish data (for example, local government budget by sectors) from information (for example, minutes of local government council meetings) and what is really open data (data in machine-readable format, provided to the public).
Decisions should not be based on intuition
Mihails Savrasovs (Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Transport and Telecommunication Institute in Latvia) spoke about the possibilities of data modeling, revealing how to make better use of data, in what levels of detail they can be viewed. “Modeling is a powerful tool that allows you to analyze complex systems and make data-based decisions,” Savrasov said, calling for intuition-free decisions. M.Savrasov has also concluded that modeling is only a tool because everything is based on data and their level of detail. This is one of the problems that prevent the full potential of the data from being realized. Continuing, the expert pointed out the paradox – although information and communication technologies are constantly evolving and new data sets are available, but many of them are still not publicly available on the grounds of trade secrets or personal data protection regulation. This is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Missing data can also be generated by the population
Nika Aleksejeva from the association “Data School” briefly outlined the goals of the organization and told about the potential of citizen participation in creating new data that is currently missing for the industry. In order to get people to respond, it is important to be able to convince them that participation is not just formal, that it is followed by feedback – a positive stimulus, such as solving a problem identified by the citizen or sorting out an identified problem area. N. Aleksejeva told in more detail about the course of the previously implemented project “Bicycle Data”, within the framework of which the load of bicycle lanes in Riga was studied with the active involvement of the society. Currently, another project is being implemented – “Veloslazdi”, which, by involving cyclists, allows to identify the shortcomings of the bicycle infrastructure in the city. As of May 1, 2020, 950 bicycle traps have been reported. The problems are compiled and submitted to the Riga City Council Traffic Department for resolution, while volunteer enthusiasts later inspect the sites to see if the problem has been resolved. N. Aleksejeva points out: “Nowadays, technically anyone can implement this type of platform project. The question is: who will give the data, what will happen to the data afterwards, will the delivery of the data make sense, is the expected result clear and will there be feedback? ”
The data collected must be used to solve problems in the urban environment
Māris Mielavs, Head of Jelgava City Municipality Institution “Pilsētsaimniecība” and Māris Skudra, Head of Infrastructure Management Systems Division of “Pilsētsaimniecība” spoke about the opportunities that allow the development of modern cities, revealing how traffic data is obtained and used in Jelgava urban development planning. Seven types of data storage tools are used in the city of Jelgava. The various systems allow access to accurate data (eg traffic volume, intensity, speed, trajectories) at any time and place, successfully addressing the limited capacity of human resources and at the same time saving municipal funds. One example is a sensor built into the carriageway that, in response to a magnetic field generated by a car, provides information on the number of cars that are later used to model flow rates and optimize traffic light signaling to improve intersection permeability. Such activities need to be carried out, for example, at the start of a new school year, when significantly more vehicles appear on the streets in the morning and afternoon. Vehicle counting and classification equipment not only collects data but also helps to address safety issues, as it often helps to identify the causes of accidents, identify culprits and make infrastructure improvements when needed in a given situation to avoid future accidents. The attendees were especially interested in the meteorological stations installed in the city of Jelgava, which help to predict the possibility of black ice, allowing to plan the treatment of the road surface in time.
By the end of 2020, a vision for the development of the Via
Hanseatica tourism and transport corridor 2030 will be developed in the Vidzeme
planning region. The expected result is a spatial development planning document
that would help to improve the flow of passengers and tourists in the Vidzeme
planning region. This would not only identify potential solutions to improve
the region’s attractiveness in terms of mobility, but also make practical
proposals to reduce travel time and improve passenger access to the corridor
from the hinterland.
The document is intended to include recommendations, for
example, on how to optimize routes, how to improve the flow of information on
traffic routes, how to provide more convenient public transport connections,
etc. During the development of the plan, meetings with stakeholders interested
in the economic development of Vidzeme, ie representatives of state and
municipal institutions, entrepreneurs and tourism and transport experts, will
be organized to analyze the conditions hindering the smooth and convenient flow
of passengers in the corridor and receive suggestions on what improvements may
be needed to address the problem.
The final document is expected to be useful both for entrepreneurs and investors to make decisions on starting, improving or expanding a business, as well as for local governments in the region, which will be able to use the document when planning the development of their territories. The conclusions will also be binding on public administration institutions, such as the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development, and the Ministry of Economics, in carrying out work on the development and updating of national level development planning documents.
Via Hanseatica is a historically significant international transport, tourism,and trade corridor connecting the eastern part of the Baltic Sea region with the central regions of the European Union on the route Riga-Valmiera-Tartu-Narva-St. Petersburg.
This transport corridor and the adjacent territory serve as
an important tourism development corridor, but one of the limiting factors for
achieving its full potential is the availability and quality of transport
services. Both local and foreign tourists, when looking for an alternative mode
of transport to personal road transport, face the fragmentation of the proposed
transport solutions, lack of digitally available information, as well as
uncoordinated public transport times, which hinder convenient movement between
several tourist attractions near the corridor. Tourists also face various
obstacles when choosing personal transport, such as the quality of
infrastructure (condition of roads, lack of directions).
Bottlenecks
in the northern transport corridor (E-18; form Turku/Naantali to Vaalimaa,
Russian border) have been identified through surveys, workshops and interviews.
The purpose was to observe the obstacles and nodes of the transport and to find
out what time it takes in the transport corridors of the Baltic Loop project.
Unfortunately, Covid19 messed up the plans and observation will continue in the
autumn 2020 .
Field survey started with pilot route to observe (see video) the old route from the port of Turku to Paimio (Satama-Tukholmankatu-Ratapihankatu-highway 1-Paimio). This route is forbidden to heavy trucks by the Turku City Council order. Anyway, the idea was to test the research methods and at the same time compare the “old route” with the current situation in which the heavy traffic from Turku port is forced to use Turku Ring Road.
Preliminary results of test driving
The result of this preliminary test drive was quite clear; the old route (now forbidden of city council) from/to Turku port can be even 15-20 minutes faster than the new one demonstrated by the test drive. So far, the results are only tentative. It will need some more testing. It can be assumed that in capital areas (Ring Road III) where numerous terminals are located similar delays originated from compulsory route choice set by civil servants will exist. Our coming test driving throughout the road corridors will reveal the hindrances.
Baltic Loop field surveys and observations along the gateways
The
implementers of the field survey are the Bachelor students of Turku University
of Applied Sciences and the students of the Turku Vocational Institute in the field
of transport. The aim is to verify the bottlenecks along the identified by
surveys, workshops and interviews. The route was driven with a loaded
semi-trailer driven by a driver student and a graph and observations documented
by an engineering student. In addition to the description, information on the
speed of transport was collected with GPS equipment that recorded both location
and time. By analyzing the data, it is possible to present suggestions to the street
planners and operators to streamline traffic.
Later in
the autumn, observations will be made on the Naantali-Örebro, Naantali-Russian
border, Tallinn-Riga and Riga-Ventspils routes as well (Middle and South
gatewys) . In Finland and Sweden, freight traffic is studied, and in the Baltic
countries, passenger traffic on both rail and road is studied too.
Results of field work
By combining data form 1) field surveys, 2) questionnaire and 3) stakeholder interviews and meetings (ports, civil servants, truck companies etc,) we can collect and analyze the most important hindrances and bottlenecks and finally present development suggestions.
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