Thessaloniki's Intelligent Urban Mobility Management System
Thessaloniki's Intelligent Urban Mobility Management System provides a suite of services for travellers in order to help
them move easily around the city, avoiding the traffic congested areas and also to raise the environmental consciousness
of the public and consequently to improve the traffic and environmental conditions of the city. The system is a unified
effort of the key players of the city dealing with urban mobility, transport and environment and more specifically:
• Region of Central Macedonia
• Hellenic Institute of Transport – Center for Research and Technology Hellas
• Municipality of Thessaloniki
• Thessaloniki's Integrated Transport Authority
In collaboration with:
• National Observatory of Athens
• Institute of Transport Economics – Norwegian Centre for Transport Research
The system aims, through the services provided, to help travelers move around the city easily avoiding the traffic congested areas
, to raise the environmental public consciousness and to promote public transportation and alternative ways of transport
(walking, cycling). At the same time, through intelligent traffic management and control in the central area of Thessaloniki,
the system aims to reduce the negative influence of the gaseous pollutants. The direct involvement of citizens in planning their trips
will give them the right and the opportunity to actively contribute to the improvement of the environmental quality of the city.
Finally, through special urban mobility training programs that the system provides, a new culture for urban mobility is formed in
the city.
The Intelligent system is divided into two separate service Centers which act complementary and parallel, the Center for Urban Mobility
and the Traffic Control Center. The whole project incorporates the planning, design and development of both Centers as well as the
development of the necessary interface structures with other systems and infrastructures of the city which already exist.
Services provided by the Urban Mobility Center
● Routing Services
The service provides optimal routes based on criteria defined by the traveler. Moreover, the traveler chooses the transport mode
of his preference through the following options:
• Public Transport Routing
The traveler chooses the maximum desired walking distance between 100, 200 and 300 meters. The provided alternative routes are presented both on
a map and on a visual diagram.
• Private Car Routing
The traveler, based on his preferences and needs, chooses between the following criteria:
› the fastest route
› the shortest route in length
› the most environmentally friendly route
› the most cost efficient route (in terms of fuel consumption)
The total travel time is calculated based on real time traffic data of the road network.
• Combined Transport Routing
The traveler can combine the use of its private car with public transport for a single route based on
trip length, travel time, fuel consumption or environmental condition of the network.
●Traveler information Services
These services provide information related to:
•Real time traffic conditions of the road network and estimation of the traffic condition within a day,
presented with different colours according to the level of service.
•Daily Air quality conditions of the city presented with different colours based on the level of CO emissions.
•Points of Interest which the traveler can select either by their category and subcategory or by entering the address of his preference and
the range of the area in which he wants to find nearby points of interest.
•Public Transport Information related to bus routes and timetables as well as bus stop areas.
●Sustainable Mobility awareness services
The platform gives travellers the opportunity to learn and become familiar with the concept of Sustainable Urban Mobility, through
identification of urban mobility transport problems, provision of best examples and practices around the world. Additionally the traveler
can test and evaluate his knowledge acquainted by the service by participating in various interactive games, multiple choice quizzes,
crosswords e.tc. related to the Sustainable Urban Mobility.
Services provided by the Traffic Control Center
1. Incident Management using real-time information.
2. Dynamic estimate of traffic condition for future periods within a day
3. Assessment and validation of the predicted travel time
4. Developing 'strategic' dynamic management of traffic lights
based on the estimated traffic conditions which consiquently will reduce the environmental impact.
5. Impact evaluation of the dynamic managemet of traffic lights in the central region
of Thessaloniki.
The Traffic Control Center operates under the responsibility of the Region of Central Macedonia (RCM). The new traffic control center, which is focused on
the adaptation of traffic light programs on real time conditions, aims to complete and expand the capabilities of the existing infrastructure of the RCM.
The Intelligent Urban Mobility Management Center is a project funded 50% from the countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the financial mechanism
‘European Economic Association' and 50% by National Funds.