The city of Ghent will implement a new dynamic traffic control system by mid-2022. The system will inform visitors in real time about the current parking situation, the occupancy rate of the various car parks, serious traffic disruptions and much more.
For the implementation of the project, a consortium led by Jacops, a company specialised in the installation of intelligent traffic infrastructure, was called in. In addition to Jacops, the consortium consists of Be-Mobile, a leader in smart traffic solutions, and Q-lite, a Belgian manufacturer of LED-displays. As part of the project, the City of Ghent will replace the current digital information boards showing the occupancy of the car parks.
By the second half of 2022, new signs will be installed at 50 locations, these full-colour LED-displays offer the possibility of sharing additional traffic information, such as roadworks and events, or travel times in real time.
Among other things, digital signs will be placed just before the R4 in order to smoothly guide visitors to the park-and-rides. In addition to replacing the physical signs, the traffic control system, coming from a completely new central management system that will communicate with the signs according to the current traffic situation.
With this project, the City of Ghent can meet the current, but also the future needs in the field of traffic management and analysis. Visitors are guided via the new LED screens to the most appropriate car park based on the actual parkinginformation and the real-time travel time. “With the traffic control system, we limit search traffic and can indicate in advance which car parks are full,” says Filip Watteeuw, Alderman for Mobility at the City of Ghent. “This way people can decide quickly to make use of park-and-rides and we limit unnecessary car traffic in the city.”
Travellers also receive information on parking occupancy, serious accidents, traffic jams and connections with public transport. In short, the City of Ghent provides well-informed travellers and residents and can thus reduce unnecessary traffic in the city.
The total investment of this new traffic control system, including maintenance and all software developments, amounts to 2,778,000 euros.
About the involved parties
About Jacops
JACOPS is a family business with more than 50 years of experience in the fields of telecom, rail and infra, with a particular focus on the underlying technologies. With its headquarters in Deerlijk, JACOPS has several branches throughout the country in order to provide clients with a fast and sustainable service.
By combining their expertise, they can respond to the needs of ‘turnkey’ projects in specific environments such as traffic management, where we relieve the customer from A to Z, from advice to installation, service and after-care, in combination with strong partnerships.
JACOPS invests in the most advanced equipment, but above all believes in the value of its employees. Various training programmes stimulate the professional development of all our employees and make JACOPS a sought-after knowledge and implementation company.
About Be-Mobile
Be-Mobile is a smart mobility service provider, headquartered in Ghent. Using its expertise, Be-Mobile develops high-tech solutions in the field of smart mobility, traffic monitoring and management, traffic information, mobile payment and toll collection to pave the way to smoother daily mobility.
Be-Mobile, with Belgian telecom company Proximus as majority shareholder, helps traffic managers in their task to make traffic safer and smoother by using the power of connected vehicles and travellers. The Be-Mobile Connected Vehicle Platform combines data from smartphones or moving vehicles with data from roadside sensors, multimodal information, parking data and much more.
About Q-lite
Q-lite is a Belgian manufacturer of digital display solutions. Since 1990 Q-lite has been developing and producing digital information screens in the Belgian enclave of Baarle-Hertog for various sectors including municipal information boards, sports, advertising & retail, industry, mobility and customised projects. In the meantime Q-lite has become the market leader in the Benelux with more than 40,000 operational digital information screens.
Q-lite is part of the investment company VP Capital nv that invests in companies that make a positive contribution to society in an innovative, technological manner. As a sustainable, full-service organisation, Q-lite contributes to this project by producing high-quality LED screens that are an essential part of a high-performance traffic control system that is ready for the mobility of tomorrow.
