GEOFENCING FOR SMART URBAN MOBILITY

The background of the project was to investigate the benefits of utilizing geofencing for traffic management and information. Geofencing enables the possibility of communicating digitally with vehicles or drivers. The technology is easy to understand and a dynamic tool for the authorities to use in regulating the traffic. The projects focuses on two use-case: 1. Road charging in low emission zones 2. Dynamic speed adoption in school zones The project piloted both integrated solutions in newer vehicles and retrofit equipment for older vehicles. The main goal of the project: Study and evaluate how ITS services based on geofencing combined with C-ITS could be used to improve and make traffic management and -planning more efficient. In the project reports Foss m. fl. (2019), Arnesen m. fl. (2020) and SVV (2021) potential solutions for using geofencing is studies, both before and after the pilots were completed. I addition value networks is identified, including potential barriers and needed collaboration interfaces, and in particular the HMI of the piloted solutions was defined. Two pilots are conducted in the project. The first pilot was conducted using a retrofit equipment developed by Q-Free, were distance based road user charging in low emission zones and alerting drivers of school zones was tested by approx. 70 volunteers in Trondheim and Oslo. The other pilot was conducted using a test plug-in hybrid vehicle from Volvo. 40 volunteers tested integrated geofencing with automatic switching to electric driving within low emission zones and automatic reduction of speed in school zones. These pilots have given a low of relevant experience with the technology which are now being built upon. The results of the pilots are documented in several scientific publications (Dahl m. fl., 2020; Seter m. fl., 2021; Arnesen m. fl., 2021; Arnesen m. fl., 2022). The results show high acceptance for all four combinations (retrofit school, retrofit low emission, integrated school and integrated low emission zones), where e.g. technical data show a behaviour change for retrofit low emission zones with road pricing as functionality. It is also conducted workshops with city authorities and national authorities, documented in Meland m. fl. (2020) and SVV (2021). These results show a potential large benefit of implementing this technology. However, one would be dependent on a standardised system and collaboration with industry, to achieve a sufficient high number of vehicles with this technology to get maximum benefit for the society. The OEMs is particular important in this regard. The project have participated in relevant standardization work, including giving input to an ITS standard defining digital zones for UVAR (Urban Vehicle Access Regulations). The project has given significant impact and generated valuable knowledge for both involved partners and others. In particular the project has generated recommendations for how to implement geofencing (Meland m. fl., 2020; SVV, 2021), a number of scientific work (Dahl m. fl., 2020; Seter m. fl., 2021; Arnesen m. fl., 2021; Arnesen m. fl., 2022), and put geofencing on the general public map through media, conferences and channels for popular science. The sum of these contributions has made this project the standard for how to work with geofencing in Norway. The implementation of geofencing solutions will help reaching political transport goals of safer, cleaner and more efficient traffic. The experiences and results form GeoSUM is e.g. taken into two new projects supported by the Norwegian research council, GeoFlow and GeoTracks, which will give valuable inputs and help with implementing the future solutions for road user charging. GeoSUM is from the Norwegian side also brought into the EU funded project GeoSence, which will develop implementation strategies for geofencing for European cities. Through the projects dissemination and communication activities in national and international fora, the research partners within the projects have established themselves in the fore front of the research being done in this area. References: Foss et al. (2019) Summarizing the main findings of Work Package 1 Arnesen et al. (2020) Summarizing the main findings of work package 2 and 3 SVV (2021) GeoSUM og regulatorrollen - Anbefalinger basert på forsøk og evalueringer Meland et al (2020) GeoSUM AP5 - Realisering av nytte Dahl et al (2020) Geofencing for smart urban mobility: Effects from a pilot with retrofit equipment Seter et al. (2021) Comparing user acceptance of integrated and retrofit driver assistance systems?A real-traffic study Arnesen et al. (2021) Geofencing to Enable Differentiated Road User Charging Arnesen et al. (2022) Geofencing - Experiences from Piloting of Low Emission Zones

Prosjektet har: 1. Målt virkningen og aksepten av retrofit og integrerte løsninger for geofence use-casene fart i skolesoner, og vegbruksavgift(retrofit) og styring av drivlinje (integrert) for lavuslippssoner. 2. Identifisert nytten av geofencing spesielt fra et myndighetsperspektiv. 3. Flyttet teknologien nærmere implementering 4. Resulatene og tankegodset fra GeoSUM er tatt videre i flere forskningsprosjekter og utviklingsløp.

Norske byer er sterkt preget av biltrafikk, noe som medfører store samfunnsutfordringer knyttet til effektivitet, sikkerhet og miljø. Man har derfor etablert omfattende fysisk infrastruktur for å kontrollere og styre biltrafikken i urbane områder. Grensen er imidlertid nådd for hva som er mulig med fysisk infrastruktur i vegkant uten at det går ut over mobiliteten til befolkningen. Nye tiltak og virkemidler er derfor nødvendig og ny teknologi åpner innovative muligheter. GeoSUM skal koble kjøretøy med C-ITS sammen med geofencing for å utvikle nye ITS-tjenester. Geofencing innebærer at man definerer en digital sone på et kartgrunnlag og formidler denne til kjøretøyet. Ved å kombinere C-ITS og geofence kan vegmyndigheter og vegholdere utvikle kraftige, effektive og dynamiske verktøy for påvirkende og informerende trafikkstyring. I GeoSUM vil vi pilotere to ITS-tjenester: dynamisk fartstilpasning rundt skoler og differensiert vegbruksavgift i lavutslippssoner. I GeoSUM skal vi 1) gjennomføre piloter med teknologien i virkelig bytrafikk og 2) teste ut teknologi for ettermontert utstyr i eldre kjøretøy. Kunnskapen fra GeoSUM vil være en internasjonal nyvinning. Det er få eller ingen studier som beskriver og dokumenterer implementering og bruk av geofence i operasjonelle transportsystemer. Sentrale FoU-utfordringer er: 1) Hvordan bør den teknologiske løsningen integreres med eksisterende systemer? 2) Hvordan bør OPS forankres for å sikre realisering av innovasjonen? 3) Hvordan bør ITS-tjenestene utformes for å fremme ønskede effekter og utbredelse til nye bruksområder? 4) Hvilke effekter har ITS-tjenestene for trafikanter, myndigheter, transportsystemet og samfunnet? 5) Hvordan skal man realisere ITS-tjenestene for å sikre en levedyktig tjeneste med høy grad av nytte? Potensialet for anvendelse av prosjektresultatene i GeoSUM er stort. GeoSUM vil åpne for en ny smart og dynamisk trafikkregulering i byområder uten omfattende bruk av fysisk infrastruktur.