During the previous edition of the Gentse Feesten a new phase of TMaaS (Traffic Management as a Service) got underway and it was finally possible to test the dashboard. In a few months, when the Winter festival in Ghent will attract thousands of visitors to the city, a new test will be carried out, in which groups of residents will also participate. However, the general public will have to be patient for a while longer as the official launch is planned for the spring of 2020.

Every day of the Gentse Feesten, a traffic manager from the Mobility Company of the City of Ghent was present at the command post together with the fire brigade, the police and the emergency services. After all, around a million people visit Ghent over the ten days of the festival and that presents a multitude of organisational challenges. It was the ideal occasion therefore to carry out extensive tests of the first prototype of the TMaaS dashboard in its current form.

The dashboard testing continued throughout the duration of the Gentse Feesten. The traffic managers observed the data and checked on whether they were being alerted to situations such as accidents, etc. In addition, they actively tested the various functions to remove any bugs.

The experiences of the traffic managers are already positive, even though the dashboard in its current phase is not ready for traffic management operations. One important observation concerns the map visualizations that were not entirely clear. It also seems that too much information was provided, which made the map over-busy and cluttered. The traffic managers also asked for more personalisation and interactivity.

Visit the TMaaS website to find out more!