Olympia Motorway introduces smart traffic forecast service for drivers

An innovative system for drivers was developed and uploaded on Olympia Motorway’s website. It is a “Traffic Forecasting Service” that promises to provide information in almost real time to drivers who use the motorway.

How does this work? Through a special subpage in www.olympiaodos.gr, named “Traffic Forecasting”, the driver can check the traffic of the vehicles at 2 main toll stations of the motorway (in Elefsina and Isthmos), updated every quarter of an hour. This forecast offers a prediction up to 3 days ahead (by moving the cursor on the gray bar below the chart), thanks to an AI system that maintains traffic data and, based on an algorithm, predicts potential loads.

This, of course, gives the driver the opportunity to start his or her trip on Olympia Motorway, for example, in an hour of low traffic, avoiding traffic congestion. The tool’s value can be multiplied if drivers use it extensively, as this could result on a smoother traffic distribution, throughout peak and non-peak hours of the day.

In fact, the driver can see over the quarterly and real-time chart of vehicle concentrations at the toll stations in Elefsina and Isthmia. As long as the movement remains low, the color is green and as we progress progressively into more movement or saturation, the color becomes orange and then red.

The application is piloted in operation for two points in the Elefsina-Corinth section, which gather large circulation at large mass exits, such as Christmas, Halloween, Easter and the 15th of August.

How does the app work

The application is based on a traffic forecasting model that includes:

– Traffic data from the toll stations (currently 2)

– Traffic statistics

– Calendar items (holidays or public holidays) and

– Meteorological forecasts

Panayiotis Papanikolas, Managing Director of Olympia Odos SA, speaking about the philosophy of the system, said: “The question for us is: How can we help drivers plan their trip better? With a more targeted approach, we realized that the analysis of ‘big data’ produced by the traffic control system and the intelligent systems of the motorway, and by combining these data with a piece of software, we could give a very reliable answer to this question.”

Jerome Mol, CEO of HAL24K and creator of the application noted: “We support Olympia Motorway with the ‘Engage’ project: A perfect example of how the combination of real data and Dimension Technology Platform can help to reach a better understanding of the flows and the traffic volumes influencing positively influencing the voyages of the drivers.”

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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