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06/01/2022 | Pressemitteilung

Passenger demand in public transport can be determined automatically

There is a functioning system in North Hesse's local public transport system to automatically determine passenger demand. A research project that evaluates data on cell phone locations, among other things, has been successfully completed. The new system helps transport companies to base their planning on demand and reduce expensive passenger surveys. The North Hessian transport association NVV is testing it on a pilot basis. The Department of Transportation Planning and Systems at the University of Kassel was involved.

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For three years, a project consortium investigated the question of how different data sources can be used to determine passenger demand in public transportation. In line with data protection requirements, scientists and practitioners have developed a suitable procedure for this purpose and tested it on a pilot basis in northern Hesse. The project paves the way for providing more up-to-date and meaningful demand data on public transportation use in the future.

The "Mobile Data Fusion" project ran from December 2018 to February 2022 and was funded with a total of 1,743,242 euros by the German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport as part of the mFUND innovation initiative. The project consortium consisted of WVI Prof. Dr. Wermuth Verkehrsforschung und Infrastrukturplanung GmbH from Braunschweig, the Nordhessischer VerkehrsVerbund NVV, the Department of Transportation Planning and Systems at the University of Kassel, INIT GmbH from Karlsruhe and BLIC GmbH from Berlin.

The method developed in the research project is based on the fusion of counting data from the Automatic Passenger Counting System (AFZS) and WLAN and Bluetooth signals collected by means of sensors. The automated linking of the various data sources enables daily updated information on passenger demand. In particular, this also includes information on source-destination linkages. The "Privacy by Design" approach ensured data protection-compliant processing from the very beginning.

For the pilot operation, eight test lines, 40 stops and 50 vehicles were equipped with WLAN and Bluetooth sensor technology in addition to the ARCS. Two passenger surveys were also conducted for calibration purposes. In the future, the procedure will be further developed in practical use and optimized for specific applications. 

"It is a great success that we can present a functioning procedure at the end of the project. In the future, the main task will be to tap additional data sources and thereby increase the significance of the results," says project manager Dr. Antje-Mareike Dietrich from WVI GmbH in Braunschweig. The results were presented to the interested public at a workshop on May 20, 2022.

About the BMDV's mFUND funding program

As part of the mFUND funding program, the BMDV has been supporting research and development projects related to data-based digital innovations for Mobility 4.0 since 2016. Project funding is supplemented by active professional networking between stakeholders from politics, business, administration and research and the provision of open data on the mCLOUD portal. Further information can be found at

www.mfund.de

 

Press contact:
Dr. Antje-Mareike Dietrich
Tel.: 0531 38737 54
Fax.:  0531 38737 33
E-mail: a.dietrich@wvigmbh.de
www.wvigmbh.de

Contact at the University of Kassel:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Carsten Sommer
Department of Transport Planning and Systems
Tel.: 0561 804 3381
E-Mail.: