Traffic model accessibility control

Municipality of The Hague

It is a traffic model to provide city-wide insight into the nuisance caused by activities (construction works, road works and events) on the Bereikbaarheidsregie network (the Hague's main traffic network), in order to safeguard Hague's Accessibility as much as possible.

Last change on 23rd of August 2024, at 15:22 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Other algorithms
• Impact assessment: Field not filled in.
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

Traffic

Begin date

Field not filled in.

Contact information

[e-mail]

Link to publication website

https://www.dat.nl/

Responsible use

Goal and impact

The purpose of the model is to see the impact on traffic flow of a single activity or the relationship between multiple activities in a modelled and abstracted environment. A citizen does not directly interact with the algorithm. If a citizen uses public space as a participant in traffic and there are diversions, the citizen notices that the algorithm has been used to arrive at the best possible diversion with the least possible inconvenience.

Considerations

The output of the model is used to substantiate the issuing of a positive decision for a construction work, roadwork or event with impact on the Hague main traffic network in the Urban Accessibility Consultation (SBO). As such, it forms input for the consent decision.

Human intervention

The model is fed with data by an employee after which it can start calculating. The model is used as an analysis for interpreting traffic flows due to activities. The output is weighted in relation to discussions with initiators. Human intervention is purely aimed at providing input to the programme and interpreting the outcomes. This process can be stopped at any time. The outcome of the programme is only used as input (combined with human judgement) for the design. There are several employees of BVM (specifically part of City Management) who are allowed and able to use this model to support their professional advice when assessing works measure plans. This advice is discussed in a broad forum (Urban Accessibility Consultation) and may or may not be adopted and converted into a permit.

Risk management

There are no specific risks in terms of privacy issues around personal data. Bias does not play a role.

Legal basis

This follows from the statutory duty of the road authority and the Road Traffic Act.

Operations

Data

Initial use was made of the V-MRDH model (HB matrix, route choices and intensities) supplemented with anonymous data from the head-end loops (zeros and ones) of 50 regulated intersections.

Technical design

This is an internally used model serving as input for discussions with the initiators of construction works, road works and events to take measures to ensure adequate traffic flow as well. It is an objective calculation to support the traffic engineering test for potential bottlenecks created by activities in the city (construction works road works and events). This model provides an estimate of where, given these activities and traffic flows, there may be bottlenecks. This provides input for coordinating with the initiators of the activities so that the (diversion) routes continue to function adequately. The output (nuisance) is qualified in terms of the number of people inconvenienced, travel time delays, waiting times, etc.