OUR GOAL: FRESH AIR FOR DARMSTADT
According to a study by the German Federal Environment Agency, Darmstadt is one of the cities with one of the highest levels of pollution caused by road traffic in Germany. In addition, city centres and pedestrian zones that are blocked by delivery traffic and the disregard of truck passage bans for citizens and commuters are a major problem. Therefore, we, students of industrial engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt, have made it our task to develop solution concepts for these problems.
Every semester a research project of the university takes place to provide for fresher air in Darmstadt. For this purpose we use the results of the previous semesters, build on them, collect new data or develop concepts. The project was initiated by the Center for Sustainable Economic and Corporate Policy (SECP).
The company VITRONIC Dr.-Ing. Stein Bildverarbeitungssysteme GmbH, a worldwide leading company for the monitoring of moving traffic and road safety, is supporting us with its expertise and innovative technology.
Our activities in the winter semester 19/20 are concentrated on:
- Planning and execution of test measurements regarding environmental pollution and traffic flow with stationary and mobile measuring devices
- Comparison of environmental data and traffic flow before and after the driving restriction (and speed limit from 50km/h to 30km/h) at Heinrichstraße and Hügelstraße
- Conceptual registration and categorisation of courier, express and package traffic (CEP traffic) in the inner city area
- Creation of a sustainable logistics concept for a more effective implementation of the ban on truck passage
- Analysis and processing of collected data and their possible effects (development of air pollutants, influence on living residents, influence on traffic flow in the urban area, etc.)
Analysis of the commercial traffic
Traffic in German city centres is increasing all the time. This increase in traffic volume leads to various problems, including increased pollution of the air. So-called commercial traffic plays a major role in this.
Darmstadt is one of the cities in Germany most heavily polluted with air pollutants. In order to develop effective concepts for minimizing pollution, it is first necessary to record and understand the traffic flows in Darmstadt’s inner city. This requires, among other things, a differentiation of urban commercial traffic into its various sub-categories.
Within the framework of a project at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, students are working on a way to differentiate commercial freight traffic as well as courier, express and package transport, the so-called CEP transport, from normal car traffic. In cooperation with the Wiesbaden-based company Vitronic, a camera is to be installed that uses self-learning software to record and automatically categorize vehicles.
