Eight cities install the Mobility Observations Box
Image by Kristrun Gunnarsdottir (City of Reykjavik).
Within the AMIGOS project, urban mobility data is being collected in five living labs and 10 Safety Improvement Areas (SIAs) using various tools, such as sensors, surveys, and mobile applications.
Over the past six months, traffic safety and traffic flow data has been collected using the Mobility Observation Box (MOB), which is operated by the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT). This data will serve as input for the development of the urban mobility solutions that will be implemented later in the project, as well as a baseline for the impact assessment that will be carried out to evaluate the solutions.
The Mobility Observation Box is an image-based sensor that measures traffic conditions and conflicts. It makes it possible to measure the safety of transport infrastructures according to objective criteria and, thus, allows for making comparisons. Once data is collected, machine learning algorithms automatically recognise different groups of road users (pedestrians, cyclists, car or truck drivers, e-scooter users, etc.), detect them, evaluate their traffic behaviour using trajectory-based surrogate safety measures and provide a basis for targeted mitigation measures. The battery-operated system allows for a quick and uncomplicated installation process of the box, neither requiring supplemental power nor networking sources. Due to its small size, it is possible for the MOB to register all traffic participants without causing any distraction.
In 2023, the Mobility Observation Box received the “Excellence in Road Safety” award, granted by the European Road Safety Charter.
After several trainings with the cities, eight of out 10 SIAs were equipped with one Mobility Observations Box to collect traffic data: Jurmala, Gabrovo, Hamburg, Lappeenranta, Las Rozas, Istanbul, Ankara and Reykjavik. The Safety Improvement Areas, which is where AMIGOS solutions will be implemented, include school areas, intersections, roundabouts, pedestrian areas and mobility hubs. The data collection was carried out over the course of one week at each location.
For more information about the Mobility Observation Box, please contact AIT, specifically Isabela [dot] erdelean [at] ait [dot] ac [dot] at or Paul [dot] rosenkranz [at] ait [dot] ac [dot] at
Author: Isabela Erdelean
