Video surveys
To describe the characteristics of traffic in detail, more than traffic volume at a cross section or an intersection is needed. These traffic volumes are just a result of the traffic demand between origins and destinations, which distribute in the road network according to routing behaviour. That is why knowledge about the origins and destinations of traffic has always been an important requirement for traffic planners.
All formerly available methods of origin and destination survey were very complex and therefore were infrequently used. It was tried to recognise vehicles by their number plate or other preferably unique characteristics. With developing video technology and automatic number plate recognition this problem seemed to be solved. But unfortunately questions of data privacy came up which prevented the use of this new technology in Germany.
In 2013 a research project for BASt was conducted by DTV-Verkehrsconsult where, under the supervision of the German Federal Data Privacy Commissioner, video systems were tested that conformed with the data privacy regulations.
With this success, vehicle recognition using video systems for number plate recog-nition can be used in large surveys in Germany. Summarised under the term “video surveys” the technology has already been used for the Federal Mileage Survey as well as for the determination of long-distance traffic on the Bavarian motorway net-work.
DTV-Verkehrsconsult has practical experience with measurement systems of different manufacturers. Large scale projects have been carried out in cooperation with Siemens AG and Neurosoft Sp. z.o.o. With the camera technology of Neurosoft not only number plates but also characteristics like type and model of a vehicle can be detected. This provides additional vehicle classification. The systems can also be used to detect dangerous goods signs on vehicles.
The evaluation of the single vehicle data provided by the video systems re-quires a proper concept for the analysis. With a rising number of vehicles in-side the observation area that are to be compared, this task gets more and more important.
Therefore DTV-Verkehrsconsult has developed its own data base concepts and continually optimises the flexibility and speed of the following analyses. Next to the calculation of travel times and transit traffic, route choice behaviour and the origin of the vehicles can be investigated. In addition conclusions about commuting traffic are possible.
To date not all the options for the analyses of the video data have been ex-ploited. So perhaps you have a special need which we can help you with – discover the possible capabilities with us!