Traffic jam on the A9 last Wednesday evening
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Smart highways could be around the corner in Switzerland, with EPFL, the federal polytechnic institute in Lausanne, undertaking a study to improve traffic flows by using stoplights to enter highways, with funding from the Swiss Federal Roads Office.
There may be a growing sense of urgency to resolve highway traffic jams; Lausanne recently argued for more money more rapidly for trains in order to smooth out timetables for public transport and thus reduce city traffic jams. And EPFL says some recent studies show that from 2009 to 2010, an only 2.6 percent increase in highway traffic raised the number of reported traffic jams by a third.
The team has already concluded that a more effective solution would be monitoring and regulating traffic flows over a longer stretch to reduce traffic jams. The goal is to develop intelligent traffic management systems to optimize traffic flow on highways in real-time, by enforcing variable speed limits on highways and setting up traffic lights on the highway’s access ramps, EPFL says in a statement.
Lights can cut delays by 10-20%
“Experience from around the world has shown that ramp metering can reduce delays on highways by between 10 to 20 percent,” says Nikolas Geroliminis, head of the Luts (laboratory of urban transport systems) programme at the university. “Reduced congestion leads to less stop-and-go traffic, less gasoline consumption and CO2 emissions.”
Traffic lights to enter highways date back decades and are used in many parts of the world, but Switzerland’s situation has two special features. Entry ramps are very short in many areas and traffic jams in urban areas, with narrow streets, can quickly spread back from the autoroute entrance to city centres.
System-wide strategy needed
“What we need is a strategy that can control the influx of cars on all of the highway access points simultaneously to adapt to the queue on the road,” says Geroliminis. he explains. Queues on access ramps and highway congestion can be reduced by controlling speed limits and highway access across a large portion of the network, he argues.
His research group is developing an algorithm to control the traffic lights and speed limits. “Using data obtained from traffic monitoring devices mounted along the highway and on access roads, the algorithm would act as a virtual traffic warden, smoothing traffic by regulating the speed limit and restricting traffic flow onto the highway in real-time”, the EPFL statement says.
The team has selected two frequently congested highway segments they say, one of them in Vaud, to provide traffic data and serve as a test sites for their models.
The data obtained could be used to test the fesability of their method using computer simulations. The next question is whether the roads office would be willing to fund a full-scale field implementation of their strategy, but backing could well come from the regional development programme and the city of Lausanne, which are looking to improve traffic flows in the next decade.
Swiss autoroute jam earlier in the week, on the A9
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Gotthard tunnel at noon Friday 6 March had stationary traffic for 9 km on the north side, as Good Friday traffic builds up, the federal road service’s Truckinfo site shows. Traffic is very slow heading south from Chur due congested conditions, but several other parts of the country, particularly autoroutes around urban centres, have very slow traffic doe to accidents and road works.
The site is updated every five minutes.
Check the Easter traffic alert from the Swiss highway department for peak times on main routes.
The snow is gone, the weather is warm - time to repair the road surface! Photo: Montreux-Roche rest stop on the A9, with beautiful views of the Alps
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The spring season for roadworks is about to open, with the Swiss federal government spending CHF2.1 billion this year on national roads, CHF1.3b of which goes for road maintenance.
An additional CHF90 million is being spent to reduce traffic jams in two areas, Zoug (Blegi-Rütihof) and the Härkingen-Wiggertal stretch in eastern Switzerland (A1/A2).
The A9 Montreux-Roche area will be one of those afffected by maintenance, with the Chillon viaducts under repair (details on GenevaLunch once the highway department posts them).
The others are:
- A1 Zurich Est-Effretikon (ZH)
- A5 Colombier-Cornaux (NE)
- A13, replacement of the surface, Thusis Sud-Isla Bella (GR).
Running a car in Switzerland is about to cost more, but the roads will remain in good shape, says Bern
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland will integrate another 400 km of roads into the federal road system by 2015, but at a cost: the larger network plus growing traffic will cost the Swiss Confederation some CHF275 million francs in maintenance.
The financing solution decided on by the Federal Council is to introduce a two-tiered road tax for the autoroute, the Swiss equivalent of tolls. An annual tax sticker will cost CHF100 rather than today’s CHF40 and a two-month CHF40 sticker, mainly for tourists, will be added.
Bern says it is also considering introducing an electronic tax system, where a license plate is registered in the system and scanned by autoroute cameras.
The two-tiered system will require more surveillance, the council notes.
The package of new measures now goes to interested groups for consultation, since the changes require an amendment to the law.
The roads that will become part of the system are:
- H21 Martigny – Gd. St-Bernard
- H15 Schaffhausen – Thayngen
- H6 Bern/Schönbühl – Biel
- H20 Neuchâtel -Le Locle – Col des Roches
- H223 Spiez – Kandersteg
- H509 Goppenstein – Gampel
- H338 (Hirzel) Baar – Wädenswil
- H394 Mendrisio – Stabio / Gaggiolo
- H406, H13 Bellinzona – Locarno
- H14 Grüneck – Meggenhus
- Semi-autoroute cantonale A53 Brüttisellen – Wetzikon – Rüti
- Semi-autoroute cantonale A53 Rüti ZH – Reichenburg
- H8 St. Gallen – Winkeln – Appenzell
- H18 Delémont Est – Hagnau
- H17 Niederurnen – Glarus
- H2 Pratteln – Liestal – Sissach
- H5 Aarau – Aarau-Ost
- H417, H3 Thusis – Silvaplana
- H10 Thielle – Murten
Traffic in front of the WTO, heading into Geneva: expect delays (photo, Jared Bloch)
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - People travelling into Geneva by any method can expect to be stopped and handed a questionnaiare between 21 March and mid-April.
Vaud, Geneva and neighbouring France are pooling their efforts to better understand commuters’ and others’ transport needs in the region by organizing a vast survey of current needs.
Three weeks, 30 border crossings, 100,000 questionnaires:
“The questionnaires will be handed out on all of Geneva’s borders to everyone going into Geneva, whether they are on foot, using two wheels, in a car or bus or train, between 06:30 and 20:30,” says Geneva’s Mobility Office, which is coordinating the work with five other government agencies from the region.
“Each area will be covered for just one day,” it notes.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Gas station shops along autoroutes and main highways in Switzerland could soon sell goods all night, if the federal taxation and finance committee of the lower house of parliament has its way. It is recommending that the stations’ staff be allowed to sell not only restaurant food and petrol during the night but also goods such as food that are sold during the day.
The stations on these roads are currently obliged to rope off part of their shop areas at night, even when they remain open.
Other stretches of Swiss autoroute are studying the Morges-Lausanne solution of adding 2 lanes during rush hour
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Projects such as the third rail line between Vaud and Geneva, considered urgent in the region but far down the long 20-year list of Swiss transport projects, will now be able, in exceptional cases, to get advance funding. The lower house of the Swiss parliament Tuesday joined the upper house in voting to extend CHF850 million in credit to the transport infrastructure fund, to avoid a cash flow crunch as projects become urgent ahead of their scheduled funding. The third rail line is one such exceptional case, with population and workforce growth in the region outstripping planning figures.
The fund was created in 2008 to finance special projects designed to reduce road traffic congestion in cities, larger urban areas and on the autoroutes.
Parliament also voted to spend CHF1.51 billion on 26 projects to improve transport in urban areas. Some CHF1.51 of the money goes to the most urgent projects to reduce traffic jams on autoroutes.
Update 21:20 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The proverbial sweet tooth could soon be replaced by sweet wheels in Switzerland, the kind that roll along sugar-covered highways. Authorities in canton Bern have confirmed that they have been using a liquid sugar-based product instead of salt on the A6 autoroute between Rubigen and Spiez, in a two-year test programme that is going well, canton Bern roads supervisor Martin Roesti told GenevaLunch.
The product being used is made by a British company, Safecote, and is manufactured in Italy. Parts of the US, Canada, Norway and Iceland use the liquid sugar on their roads. Switzerland is testing it, says Roesti, because at lower temperatures it is more effective than salt chloride. It is also less aggressive and doesn’t lead to potholes the way salt does.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The summer travel season begins in earnest 30 June and the Swiss federal government has issued its list of roads and dates when travelers can expect heavy traffic.
Les axes routiers et les jours présentant un fort risque de perturbations sont les suivants :
Autoroutes
Heading south
- A1 St Margrethen – Geneva, between Zurich and Bern, between Lausanne and Morges (roadworks), customs at Geneva/Bardonnex
- A2/E35 Basel – Chiasso – Milan: Bâle/Weil am Rhein customs, between the Belchen tunnel and the Wiggertal junction, between Erstfeld before the north end of the Saint Gotthard (see Gotthard below), the Chiasso/Brogeda customs, to the Como/Grandate toll booth
- A3 Basel – Zurich: between Basel/Saint-Louis customs and the Wiese junction
- A13 Sargans – Bellinzona: between entre Nufenen and Hinterrhein (roadworks), to the north entrance of the San Bernardino tunnel
- Ring roads around Bern (A1/A6), Lausanne (A1/A9) and Zurich (A1/A3)
Times when you can expect traffic jams
Fridays between 15:00 and 21:00 and Saturday from 08:00 to 16:00
Dates with particularly heavy traffic
July: 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25
August: 1
Heading north
- A1 Geneva – St. Margrethen: Geneva/Bardonnex customs, betwee entre Morges and Lausanne (roadworks), between Bern and Zurich
- A2/E35 Milan – Chiasso – Basel: from the Como/Grandate toll booth to the Chiasso/Brogeda customs, between Quinto and the south entrance to the Saint-Gothard tunnel, between Reiden and the Härkingen junction, to customs at Basel/Weil am Rhein
- A3 Sargans – Zurich – Basel: between Zurich/Brunau and the end of the autoroute, Basel/Saint-Louis customs
- A4a Zoug – Sihlbrugg: between Baar and the end of the autoroute at Sihlbrugg
- A9 Martigny – Lausanne: between Bex and the Glion tunnel
- A13 Bellinzone – Coire: at the southern entrance to the San Bernardino tunnel, between Hinterrhein and Nufenen (roadworks)
- Ring roads around Bern (A1/A6), Lausanne (A1/A9) and Zurich (A1/A3)
Times when you can expect traffic jams
Fridays 15:00-21:00, Saturdays 10:00-20:00 and Sundays from 13:00 to 20:00
Dates with particularly heavy traffic
July: 11, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26 and 31
August: 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29
September: 5
Saint Gotthard tunnel
Heading south
Tailbacks are likely at the north end of the tunnel on these dates: Friday 3 July from 12:00-24:00, Saturday 4 July 05:00-18:00. The nights of 10-11 and 17-18 and 24-25 July, non-stop from Friday 12:00 to Saturday 18:00. Traffic jams are also possible Saturdays from 08:00-16:00 during August and up to mid-eptember, as well as Sundays in July from 10:00-16:00.
The entrances to the Göschenen, Monday to Thursday during July, noon to 20:00 are also likely to have traffic jams.
Heading north
Traffic jams can be expected at the south entrance to the tunnel these days: Fridays, 10-31 July from 12:00-22:00, 7-14 August from 10:00-23:00, 21 August to 4 September from 13:00-20:00, Saturdays 11-25 July from 10:00-22:00, 1 August and 8 August from 09:00-01:00, 15 August to 5 September, 10:00-21:00, Sundays, 19 July to 6 September, 11:00-21:00.
Traffic jams could occur Saturday 4 July, 10:00-18:00. From mid-July to the end of August, traffic jams can also be expected occasionally afternoons Monday to Thursday, noon to 20:00.
Main roads inside Switzerland and customs stations
Heavier traffic can be expected on the following roads within Switzerland: Spiez-Kandersteg (start of holidays), Gampel-Goppenstein (end of holidays), Bellinzona-Locarno, Wädenswil-Hirzel-Sihlbrugg, Sihlbrugg-Zurich (Sihltal), Flüelen-Brunnen (Axenstrasse), as well as on some Alpine region roads, including main Alpines passes. Expect some delays at these customs stations: Au, Koblenz, Sankt-Margrethen and Thayngen.
For traffic updates
• Telephone in French, German and Italian: Viasuisse (No 163 – 50 cts/call+50 cts/min)
• Radio DRS/RSR/RSI
• web sites: www.tcs.ch, www.cff.ch, www.teletext.ch (rail: p 486/487, road: p 491 – 497), www.bls.ch.
