Keeping it moving

Peer Fischer, Vice President for Middle East and Asia at Siemens Traffic Solutions, explains how he is looking to ensure urban traffic flows more smoothly.

“Managing and preserving mobility in conurbations is one of the key challenges for urban and transport planners”
-Peer Fischer

Urbanisation and globalisation create more commuters and more freight traffic in the world's ports. Traffic congestion cost the US economy US$78 billion in 2005, resulting in 4.2 billion lost hours, as well as pollution and wasted fuel. These costs are growing by eight percent per annum.

The economic costs of congestion in New York alone are close to US$4 billion a year. Various studies estimate the cost of congestion – in developed and developing cities – to reach between one percent and three percent of GDP. In emerging market cities, car ownership rates are currently a fraction of the 75-90 percent of OECD countries. With car ownership growing from less than one in 10 people to one in three or higher, even greater strain will be placed on the transport infrastructure.

Managing and preserving mobility in conurbations is one of the key challenges for urban and transport planners as well as for politics and police. Siemens Traffic Solutions offers the technical solutions that help ensure mobility, increase safety for all road users and minimise environmental impact by means of modern traffic control technology.

The era of traffic management began in 1924 with the deployment of the first automated traffic controllers for the first traffic lights in Berlin, and the traffic control systems at the Chicago Loop in the US. Ever since, Siemens has been committed to developing and marketing new traffic management solutions. In 1965. Siemens installed Europe's first traffic computer, and in 1976 the company developed the first microprocessor-based traffic controller. Today, Siemens' business activities cover everything from intelligent traffic data acquisition with the autonomous traffic sensor system Traffic Eye Universal right up to advanced traffic management centres like the VMZ in Berlin or the "Ruhrpilot" in Essen.

These two large-scale systems are pioneer projects of successful public-private partnerships for mobility management in large cities and conurbations. The new Smartlink technology makes it possible to deploy, with little initial investment, urban traffic control systems that offer safe, reliable and cost-efficient options for short-distance communication. Siemens supplies, implements and operates modular and standardised solutions for local and area-wide traffic control systems in urban areas, wired and wireless communication networks, traffic management systems for motorways, freeways and tunnels, parking solutions for off-road and on-road parking, public transport prioritising and management systems, processing systems for traffic information and electronic toll collection.

Today, Siemens is the preferred partner for many projects in metropolitan areas around the world – from Berlin to London, from São Paulo to Los Angeles, from Moscow to Beijing – and an experienced supplier of mobility solutions for large-scale events such as the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City 2002 or the Olympic Summer Games in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

One of the central tasks of Siemens is the integration of different technologies and services into new solutions for a modern traffic management that supports increased mobility. Based on the intelligent traffic systems developed by Siemens, this holistic approach enables the interplay of different technologies for the acquisition, processing and transmission of a wide variety of traffic data, creating an all-inclusive traffic management system for all road users.

An installed basis of more than 1000 traffic control centres and over 170,000 traffic controllers makes Siemens the market leader. This solid basis enables Siemens to realise excellent technical solutions tailored to the needs and requirements of individual countries, regions and cities around the globe.

The most recent projects are the ones in Abu Dhabi on Yas and Reem Island, as well as in Prague and Athens. Here Siemens is installing local traffic signal controllers equipped with open-standard communication options, central control computers with advanced algorithms for controlling the entire network, wireless networks of intelligent sensors and energy-saving traffic signal installations.

As Siemens Traffic Solutions VP for Middle East and Asia, Peer Fischer has been responsible for the Siemens traffic solutions global portfolio since 2005.