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Closures of D1 WEB – About project
The aim of the project is to inform the general public about the current delay that is caused due to the modernization of the most important road in the Czech Republic – the D1 motorway. Traffic portal www.uzavery-d1.cz is managed and operated by the company CROSS Zlín, a.s. within the project “The modernization of the D1 motorway” by Czech Road and Motorway Directorate. There are updated and historical data of delays within the individual sections of modernized parts of the D1 motorway on the portal, which brings the current traffic conditions to all drivers of the D1 motorway online.
More information about the modernization and the current situation:www.novad1.cz
www.dopravniinfo.cz
Web Portal
The aim of web portal www.uzavery-d1.cz is to inform its visitors as easy as possible about the current situation on the modernized sections of the D1 motorway. Therefore, the information about delay was selected as the most understandable and it can include all the consequences of the traffic problems in one piece of simple symbol but meaningful information. It is assumed that drivers are most interested how long they will be delayed in each section of the road in modernization and when they will arrive to their destination. All time data are listed in minutes.
Presented Data
Presented delay is the difference between the measured travel time and so-called ideal passing time between Bluetooth (BT) detectors. Since the detectors are not placed only at the beginning and the end of the modernized section, the ideal passing time is chosen on the basis of the correlation of the linear calculation and statistical filtering really achieved time by passing vehicles via each section. Filtering includes a possible stop of a vehicle on the route and other unexpected situations (e.g. a puncture, stop at the petrol station, etc.), so as these results do not affect the real data. The delays increasing at night may appear due to greater proportion of truck traffic, which could have slower passage through.
Data Currency
Portal visitors always see current information about the state of the traffic flow in modernized sections of the D1 motorway. Information about the delay is updated each five minutes in order to guarantee the sufficient amount of data to calculate the actual delay. In case of lower traffic (mostly at night), this interval is extended to 20 minutes maximally for these reasons. The development of future delays cannot be accurate due to the unpredictability of traffic, so the data are always valid when you look at them.
Data History
Each visitor can look at the history, when opening the detail of an individual closure over the right panel or by selecting an individual closure on the map. In detail, you can find a chart presenting the delay in hours, thus average measured delay for one hour, the value of which is calculated from the beginning of the hour to the last time of delays detected in the given hour. The data in the chart show the delay in minutes for each hour of the selected day. The visitors can choose the exact day or a period of days of interest in order to display the average value in certain hours for the selected period.
Web Portal on your Mobile Phone
When creating a website design it was emphasised on the so-called responsive design - pages can be displayed on any device with any resolution or display parameters without any visibility restrictions of the content. Visitors can easily see pages not only on their monitors but also on their tablets or mobile phones. The entire web is located at the production environment of CROSS Zlín Company which guarantees high availability and quick response even in case of a large number of visitors.
Monitoring of the Modernized Sections
There are several mobile monitoring points within and around the modernized sections, that are connected to the National Traffic Information Centre (NDIC). These points provide continuous monitoring and collecting traffic information. Equipment of these points is various, it may contain:
- Cameras for live video - identifying the current situation by operators of NDIC
- Cameras for photography - placed in closures for less power consumption
- Video detection - records from cameras are automatically processed by computer and the data information is sent directly to NDIC about traffic conditions, traffic congestions, accidents or stalled vehicles on the D1 motorway.
- Bluetooth (BT) detectors which are used to detect the passing time of a vehicle (so-called travel time)
Placement of Monitoring Points
Places of all monitoring points were selected after approval by ŘSD ČR. In principle, there are 6 to 8 monitoring BT points around the closure that scan traffic information. The first point is approximately 6 km before the closure; the other two points are located at the beginning of the modernized section, because traffic congestions are expected just in these places. Detectors are therefore prepared to inform quickly about emerging problems.
The situation on the other side is similar, so we can get a complete view on passing vehicles in both directions along the entire length of the modernized section of the D1 motorway – BT detectors scan vehicles in both directions at the same time. The advantage of BT detectors is the immediate response to changes in the traffic flow.
Technology for Delay Monitoring
The system works on the principle of measuring the travel time of a particular vehicle (clearly specified by MAC address of BT device) passing by given points. The placement of detection points is described in Monitoring. A vehicle with an active BT device on board (mostly a mobile phone, a radio with BT, GPS module, a multimedia system in the car, etc.) is detected when the vehicle passing a nearby cabinet with BT detector (there is a directional antenna for the BT signal in the cabinet). A vehicle detected in this way is registered in the vicinity of the installed detectors. The received information (physical MAC address of the device and the passing time) are sent to the server processor that performs fusion and data separation. Subsequently, the data are introduced into the database, where they are filtered, validated and further evaluated. Then the server sends aggregated data to the NDIC and information about delay is sent to the web portal. All data about arrival times are stored in a database on a secure server for other usage.
BT Device detection
Device detection with the help of Bluetooth technology uses wireless communication connecting two or more electronic devices. Thus defined device has a custom-designed physical address (MAC), which is not always detectable. For example, the newer phones can be set not to show MAC address while Bluetooth is switched on. Therefore, if you want to contribute to this beneficial application, do not forget to turn on BT on your device in the vehicle. Approximately 3.5 million valid data on delays were gathered despite this restriction during the first month of testing.
MAC address
"Media Access Control" is a communication device identifier that should be unique in the world, so it can be considered as a unique identifier. MAC address is only used as an input value to pair data, after that is deleted and cannot be used any further, guaranteeing the safety and protection of personal data.
Example of device
BT detector is a device designed to collect traffic information - mainly arrival time. The detector is a device consisting of a BT signal receiver and a control unit, which is responsible for recording the received data and sending it to the server. BT detector is designed to be integrated to a technological distributor, which guarantees its power supply for continuous operation and receiving current data. Strategic BT detectors placed in the modernized sections of the D1 motorway also have a backup power supply in case of power failure and use their own communication channel (GPRS).
Travel time Prague – Brno, Brno – Prague
Regarding the fact that the whole modernization of the D1 motorway will take at least 6 years for 25 sections altogether, the web portal is also to inform its visitors about the total time of passage from Prague to Brno, Brno to Prague (counting from the last exit in the direction to the other city). By clicking on the detail in the right panel one can find approximate time needed to reach individual exits.
Location of Detectors and Data Accuracy
Individual BT detectors are not placed just at the exits, so the displayed time is only approximate when being re-calculated according to the distance from the nearest detector (see Web Portal). In case of an accident near the exit this information may not be correctly calculated and travel time to the exit may be distorted. With the growing number of modernized sections, and thus a higher number of working detectors the accuracy of travel time to the individual exits should raise.
Ideal Time
Location of the first BT detectors nearby the two cities is not perfect so we are forced to partially re-calculate driving time. The ideal passing time between Prague and Brno is fixed for 1 hour and 35 minutes. Panel with the passing time gets red in case of the delay higher than 40 minutes measured on the section. The information about the delay between the respective cities should be obvious at first glance then.
Case study
4th July 2013
There was an accident of a car and a truck within the closure section Nr. 21 of the modernized section of the D1 motorway. After the crash vehicles stopped the traffic in both directions and 10 km long traffic congestions appeared. A whole section was closed for half an hour due to removing the truck from the ditch about 9 o´clock but it was towed away before noon.
An article on the news server: http://zpravy.idnes.cz/dalnici-d1-v-obou-smerech-uzavrela-nehoda-kamionu-s-osobnim-autem-p8h-/krimi.aspx?c=A130704_074950_jihlava-zpravy_aha
8th August 2013
The fire of a truck within the closure of the modernized section Nr. 21 of the D1 motorway caused traffic congestions and delay of vehicles going in direction to Prague.
An article on the news server: http://www.hzscr.cz/clanek/pozar-kamionu-na-d1-hasil-pred-prijezdem-hasicu-jeho-ridic.aspx?q=cHJuPTE%3d
9th August 2013
The D1 motorway was blocked by an overturned truck loaded with briquettes out of the modernized sections of the D1 motorway. Although the truck partially blocked both lanes, drivers going in the direction from Prague to Brno had more troubles. The total travel time was almost doubled because of the closure in this direction for half an hour and the convoy was longer that 15 km when removing the accident.
In the view of the web it is stated that the delay was caused by an accident out of the closures and it influences a lot the travel time between Prague and Brno, the other direction is delayed minimally (ideal driving time is 1 hour and 35 minutes) because of the restrictions in the modernized section Nr. 9 (12 minutes). The delay is in section between 54 to 66 km of the D1 motorway as you can see in the detail of the route.
The article on the news server: http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/regiony/zpravy/na-d1-u-bernartic-havaroval-kamion-tvori-se-kolony/970793
29th August 2013
One lane of D1 motorway was blocked just before the closure at km 113,8. The accident of two trucks and a van was removed after more than two hours.
3rd October 2013
An accident of three trucks at km 153 caused a train of vehicles 14 km long.
The article on the news server: http://jihlava.idnes.cz/d1-ve-smeru-na-brno-zastavila-nehoda-tri-nakladnich-aut-pf5-/jihlava-zpravy.aspx?c=A131003_114347_jihlava-zpravy_mkk
11th October 2013
An accident of seven vehicles blocked D1 motorway at km 77. The train of vehicles was 10 km long until the accident was removed.
5th December 2013
Different vehicles crashed the barriers at km 153 during one hour. While damaged vans stayed at the emergency lane, the truck broke the barriers and fell of the bridge over the lanes in the opposite direction. In data history there is visible the delay in traffic both in the morning at the time of accident and in the afternoon at the time of extricating the truck out of the hardly accessible terrain.
The article on the news server: http://jihlava.idnes.cz/nehoda-na-d1-na-vysocine-07t-/jihlava-zpravy.aspx?c=A131205_065248_jihlava-zpravy_skr
