The Ministry of Transport won the "Best Infrastructure Project" category of the 2018 eGovernment competition with Traffic Safety Screening. Group photographs of the award ceremony can be downloaded from here (source: MIKA-fotografie | Berlin).
The Traffic Safety Screening (TSS) is part of the road safety concept. The TSS is an online-based expert tool for internal use in administration. It enables all members of the 150 accident commissions nationwide to access all relevant data for accident analysis and the elimination of accident-related deficiencies in road traffic infrastructure, using a central data platform. All data is prepared and presented in a standardized way.
A tool such as the TSS is necessary to meet the requirements of the EU safety policy for road traffic infrastructure as well as the "Vision Zero" goal in Baden-Württemberg.
The "Traffic Safety Screening Baden-Württemberg" of the State Ministry of Transport has been awarded first place in the category "Best Infrastructure Project" at the eGovernment Competition 2018. An international jury of experts awarded the prize to the system for evaluating accident data on 19 June in Berlin. A total of 59 applicants from federal, state and local administrations as well as from the social security systems in Germany, Austria and Switzerland took part in the competition, which was held for the 17th time and had its focus on the issues of digitization and modernization of public administration. More information on the competition is available atwww.egovernment-wettbewerb.de.
Jury member and speaker of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities Franz-Reinhard Habbel said: "The traffic safety screening of the state of Baden-Württemberg is groundbreaking for many federal states, but also for the whole of Europe. The combination of different information creates a comprehensive picture of the reality of traffic safety. Measures to increase traffic safety can thus be tackled and implemented in a targeted and effective manner. The project shows what new qualities arise when data are combined. This is Big Data in practice. Successful projects also need committed protagonists. This was also demonstrated in a special way at the finalists' day of this year's eGovernment competition".
In addition to various universities, the accident researchers of the German Motor Vehicle Surveillance Association (Deutscher Kraftfahrzeug-Überwachungs-Verein e.V., DEKRA) have also been making use of the TSS and have concluded in their Road Safety Report 2018 that a screening of this kind is so far likely to be unique in Europe.
In 2011, the then social-democratic/green state government of Baden-Württemberg adopted a political vision named "Vision Zero": no fatalities and heavy injuries in road traffic. To achieve this goal, the Minister of Transport presented the traffic safety concept developed jointly with the Ministry of the Interior on 2 July 2013.
In this context, the newly developed Traffic Safety Screening (TSS), which was realized by Aachen-based company “DTV-Verkehrsconsult GmbH”, was presented as a key measure. The TSS is an online-based expert tool for internal use in administration. It enables all members of the 150 accident commissions nationwide to access all relevant data for accident analysis and the elimination of accident-related deficiencies in road traffic infrastructure, using a central data platform. All data is prepared and presented in a standardized way.
A tool such as the TSS is necessary to meet the requirements of the EU safety policy for road traffic infrastructure as well as the "Vision Zero" goal in Baden-Württemberg.
The TSS holds available the information for traffic safety for the entire 26,000 km long superordinate road network (all motorways, federal, state and district roads, in and out of built-up areas) in the state of Baden-Württemberg. This information encompasses:
- Road widths and pavement strata information from the road database,
- The condition of the roads including road geometry and photographs taken on inspection drives for large parts of the network,
- Average Daily Traffic Volumes (DTV) of the statewide approximately 5,000 traffic monitoring sites,
- The evaluation of the speeds of around 20 million motor vehicles per month from continuous traffic monitoring, and
- The accident data provided by police for around 4,200 new accidents each month
on a central computer platform.
The central element of the Traffic Safety Screening is its digital map. It can be used, for example, to show the points most susceptible accidents in the road network.
Another important element is the 4-page profile, which provides up to 700 different pieces of information for an exactly 100-metre-long section of road. For the approximately 26,000 kilometres-long superordinate road network, approximately 295,000 different profiles are available.
What benefits does the TSS hold for administration?
The centrally available TSS system with its statewide uniform profiles considerably reduces the processing effort of the accident commissions. In the digital thematic map, configurable layers can be used to display the road sections and junctions prone to accidents in different colours.
- Red = maximum values (5 percent of all values)
- Orange = conspicuous (following 10 percent of all values) and
- Green = inconspicuous and remaining 85 percent of all values.
This distribution of values applies to the entire system. For the accident commissions, it is therefore always evident which points in the road network need to be dealt with first.
The main target group of the TSS are all members of the 150 accident commissions in Baden-Württemberg. They consist of members of the traffic authority (management), the road construction administration and the police. The TSS is also used in the domain of road planning and maintenance, mainly by members of the road construction administration. Including guests, a total of 668 users had access to the TSS in July 2018.
Educating and training new members of the accident commissions becomes much easier thanks to the uniformity of the TSS-system. This holds especially true for workers in the traffic authorities if they previously worked in completely different domains.
The strenuous procedure of searching and assembling relevant material for an accident commission appointment is coming to an end – the solution of the safety problem is the main focus.
The TSS-method as a map-based service also superposes road sections prone to accidents with sections in need of repair. The result of the superposition is taken into consideration in the process of prioritizing measures to prevent accidents.
The accumulation of various pieces of information form a comprehensive picture of the reality of traffic safety, thus enabling the definition of tailored measures. The effectiveness of these measures taken by the accident commissions can be reviewed directly by means of configurable layers in the digital map. The implementation of these measures contributes to a noticeable improvement in traffic safety and thus helps to save lives.
In 2018, TSS evaluations indicated for the first time that on the German federal highway B500 (The “Schwarzwald-Highstreet”), the new curve guidance panels made of synthetic material (also developed by the Ministry of Transport) mounted in road curves are likely to have an accident-preventing effect on motorcyclists. Details can be found under “Safety for motorcyclists”.
In Baden-Württemberg, the TSS system has been in statewide running use since 2014; The source systems – e.g. the electronic accident registration and the road database – even longer.
Due to minimal dependencies and the use of an OS-independent runtime-environment, the online-platform is accessible in most IT environments. The TSS can be launched on any user device with internet connection, e.g. through the Firefox browser. The 3-tier-architecture, the modular composition and the use of a flexible and capable server-sided framework allow for extensions (import sources, authentication servers etc.) and adaptions on demand with reasonable effort.
Upon statewide introduction of the Traffic Safety Screening, the Baden-Württemberg administrative ordinance on police traffic safety activities issued by the Ministry of the Interior on 29 June 2015 (VwV-VkSA) has been amended.
The TSS with its modular structure has been deliberately designed in a way that allows for introduction in other states with minimal requirements and efforts. Its scope and usage can then be expanded gradually.