Current Projects

Junior Professorship in Geosensor Systems

Cycling infrastructure is currently mostly recorded through expensive, manual inspections, resulting in outdated or incomplete data. Heterogeneous databases in administrations also prevent uniform network-related evaluation and make cooperation difficult. This results in a lack of up-to-date, reliable data for the targeted elimination of deficits (e.g., insufficient cycle path widths) and for effective strategic network planning and road safety work. There is a need for action in developing an automated, resource-saving procedure for mapping cycling facilities to create a transparent, comparable, and regularly updated database for all levels of administration.

The aim is to develop and implement an innovative, AI-based process for automatically mapping cycling facilities and their metric characteristics (e.g., width) in inner-city networks. The underlying idea is to generate a regularly updatable, highly accurate, scalable, and resource-efficient data source by applying neural networks (deep learning) to publicly available multimodal image data (aerial images, Street View). These should enable local authorities to carry out efficient control and targeted investments in high-quality cycling infrastructure and improve cooperation in network planning.

Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Hantschel
+49 351 463-42394

Dipl.-Ing. Armin Kollascheck
+49 351 463-36581

This project is one PhD project in the Research Training Group (RTG) “AirMetro Research Training Group 2947” at TU Dresden, which investigates the technological and operational integration of highly automated air transport in urban areas.

Cooperation partners are listed at AirMetro project webpage.

Thanks to rapid technological development, travel via Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft such as air taxis could increasingly be considered a technologically realistic option for future passenger mobility . Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) offers several possible advantages, including low-congestion travel routes and higher speed than for the alternative modes on road and rail. However, to fully prepare for the emergence of AAM, methods for estimating future demand for this new mode of transportation need to be developed.

• Quantify potential AAM trips: Investigate and identify trips that could potentially be replaced by AAM with a smartphone-based survey. This includes the analysis of current daily (mainly short distance) and less frequent (mainly long distance) trips.
• Develop predictive models for AAM demand: Develop statistical models that incorporate socio-economic factors, environmental considerations, regulatory impact and safety perceptions to forecast AAM demand. Utilize both revealed preference (RP) data investigated from a smartphone-based data collection and stated preference (SP) data from an online survey that capture potential users’ choices regarding AAM services.
• Estimate mode share of AAM within multimodal transportation networks: Analyse the projected proportion of trips conducted via AAM in comparison to other modes of transportation. This goal seeks to understand the role of AAM within the broader urban mobility landscape.
• Simulate AAM scenarios using agent-based modelling: Utilize the MATSim simulation tool and the newly collected data from RP and SP surveys to develop an agent-based model that simulates different AAM scenarios. This will provide insights into how changes in urban infrastructure, policy regulations, and change in AAM infrastructure could affect AAM demand and alter travel behaviour.

Prof. Regine Gerike
+49 351 463-36501

Vahid Noroozi, M.Sc.
+49 351 463-36652

Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV)

• Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Amt für Stadtplanung und Mobilität
• Staatsbetrieb Sächsisches Immobilien- und Baumanagement (SIB), Niederlassung Dresden II
• Technischen Universität Dresden, Dezernat Gebäudemanagement (D4)

In the KONZERT funding project, the aforementioned stakeholders are working together to implement responsible car park management as a core component of sustainable mobility development at the university location. The core of the KONZERT project is to answer three central scientific research questions:

• To what extent can innovative work and process organisation make operational mobility management successful at a large university with a complex administrative and responsibility structure? Which strategies can be used to overcome existing obstacles to cross-stakeholder cooperation?
• How are innovative mobility management strategies perceived by those involved and affected and which approaches lead to acceptance of a "push & pull" concept for influencing mobility across all modes of transport?
• Does the implementation process of core elements of the mobility concept lead to noticeable changes in the perception of transport alternatives and to behavioural changes among university members?

The results of the research project should not only make a contribution to the scientific discourse on corporate mobility management, but also provide concrete recommendations for action for universities and comparable institutions. Particular attention will be paid to the practical relevance and transferability of the findings to other educational institutions and organisations.

Implementation of core elements of innovative corporate mobility management

• Institutional anchoring of corporate mobility management and implementation of core elements of the mobility concept for the main campus of TU Dresden
• Focus on the package of measures "Responsible car park management", with considerable potential for sustainable mobility development
• Concerted approach in the implementation process, i.e. joint, simultaneous and coordinated action both on public streets and on university premises

Institution of innovative work and process structures

• Cross-actor coordination processes, Development, testing and consolidation of innovative work and process structures
• Technical and organisational preparation of draft resolutions and decisions
• Intensive participation process with various interactive and informative formats

Process and impact evaluation

• Coordination and technical participation by the Chair of Mobility System Planning, scientific process support, transparent analysis of the effects
• Mobility survey of employees and students (preparation, implementation, evaluation of further survey rounds, consolidation)
• Practical recommendations for action for other multi-stakeholder groups and transferable use cases

• Dresden University of Technology, Chair of Automobile Engineering (LKT)
• City of Hoyerswerda

In addition, the following chairs at Dresden University of Technology are involved in the overall SML project: Chair of Air Transport Technology and Logistics (IFL), Chair of Agricultural Systems and Technology (AST), Chair of Information Technology for Traffic Systems (ITVS), Chair of Networked Systems Modeling (NSM), Chair of Software Technology (ST), Chair of Traffic Process Automation (VPA)

A key area of work is the further improvement and analysis of methods for assessing the criticality of interactions in road traffic, known as surrogate safety measures (SSMs). These can provide information about the road safety of a traffic infrastructure so that in future adjustments can be made to the traffic system to improve road safety before traffic accidents occur.

Furthermore, new methods for recording and analysing traffic behaviour will be used.

Prof. Regine Gerike
+49 351 463-36501

Dipl.-Ing. Armin Kollascheck
+49 (0)351 463-36501

Dipl.-Ing.  Johannes Weber
+49 (0)351 463-36679

platomo GmbH
BSV Büro für Stadt- und Verkehrsplanung Dr.-Ing. Reinhold Baier GmbH

The aim of the project is to derive extrapolation factors that can be used to calculate daily volumes (e.g. for traffic planning or research projects) from short-term counts (cross-sectional counts).

The project will also examine – and if possible develop a methodology – to improve the extrapolation by including environmental data (e.g. location of the counting point, extent of development and type of use in the surrounding area).

These results should ultimately enable the inclusion of pedestrian traffic volumes in municipal planning projects and in research projects with lower personnel and budget.

Furthermore, they should be incorporated into the regulations of the Road and Transportation Research Association (FGSV) – e.g. the recommendations for traffic surveys (EVE).

Data on travel volume, often in the form of cross-sectional counts, is a central component of planning processes; it is used to dimension traffic facilities and to weigh up the interests of the different user groups of the traffic zone. Research projects and road safety work also require data on the travel volume of the various traffic modes, e.g. for evaluating measures or as exposure variables in the assessment of road safety (calculation of accident rates, etc.).

While this data is generally widely available for motor vehicle traffic (from automatic permanent counting stations supplemented by a large number of coordinated manual short-term counts) and is increasingly being taken into account for bicycle traffic, e.g. through permanent counting stations and smartphone-based surveys, there are no established methods for pedestrian traffic other than manual traffic counts. For example, it is difficult to motivate pedestrians (unlike cyclists) to actively track their trips, and mobile phone data collected automatically via radio cells can usually only be used for longer trips or vehicle traffic due to the coarse spatial resolution of this data. Due to the high personnel and therefore financial costs involved in manual counting, data on pedestrian traffic volumes has therefore only rarely been collected to date.

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