FinEst Smart Mobility
FinEst Smart Mobility brought new tools for smart mobility development in a cross-border environment
With the help of smart mobility solutions, FinEst Smart Mobility project has improved traffic fluency deriving from the congested port surroundings of Helsinki West Harbour and Tallinn Old City Harbour.
The ferry connection between Tallinn and Helsinki is one of the busiest in the world, and the traffic borne out of this transport corridor has an impact on the measures taken on the traffic on either side of the Gulf of Finland. During the project (2016-2019), several pilot projects were carried out with the aim of creating a smoother, safer and smarter traffic environment in Helsinki and Tallinn regions. Apart from four distinct smart mobility solutions, also a long term plan for sustainable mobility was laid out for Tallinn region.
Novel solutions based on open data
Detected challenges in traffic were tackled on several fronts during the project. Three pilot projects focused on the added value deriving from real-time solutions, improving the timeliness of both traffic management and transport operators. Ferries’ schedules were tracked and ferry arrival time estimates were produced and finetuned throughout the project. Traffic data on volumes, incidents and weather conditions were converged with ferry schedules and brought to traffic operators for enhanced control of traffic. Truck operators and drivers were provided a solution that assisted their punctual arrival to the port, lessening the pressure in the vicinity of the ports and saving valuable time for the carriers. Also, shared ride service was tested as a flexible, time-saving service for the ferry passengers continuing their travel from Helsinki West Harbour to Helsinki airport.
Results on pilot projects:
FinEst Mobility app by GoSwift OÜ
FinEst API by Fleetrange
Harbour’ PSO by Infotripla
Shared ride service by Kyyti
Apart from specific project pilots, the project also contributed with ‘SUMP’ a sustainable urban mobility plan for Tallinn region, taking the cross-border traffic into consideration.
The project also produced a cutting-edge ITS plan for Tallinn ring road, enabling the integration and use of latest technology to the built infrastructure. The adjustments will increase safety and provide new tools for the traffic management, improving the reactivity to real-time conditions.
For the benefit of public transport, FinEst Smart Mobility enabled the import of Digitransit, an open source journey planning platform, to Estonia. Digitransit is built in Finland and is now used by the public transport operators in all the major cities of Finland.
Innovation leap for the public sector
Apart from the smart mobility pilots developed and the cross-border cooperation FinEst Smart Mobility, the project has given the involved partners valuable lessons on innovation procurement and co-development in a multi-stakeholder environment. The solutions developed in this project provide an agile alternative to traditional, often costly, measures on built environment, and underline the importance of open data and cross-sectoral cooperation, with user experience and service quality in the centre.
Thanks to open data and synchronized development schedules, the solutions were designed to support multimodality and improve the holistic travel experience on the Finnish-Estonian transport corridor. In a wider context, the solutions developed within FinEst Smart Mobility promote traffic fluency and mitigate congestion and air pollution while increasing the value and residential value of the neighbouring land.
Project webpage (www.finestsmartmobility.com)
Project was funded by Interreg Central Baltic –programme. Projects total budget is 1.8 million euros. Project partners were: City of Helsinki, City of Tallinn, ICT demo center, City of Vantaa, Forum Virium Helsinki, Estonian Road Administration and Helsinki Region Transport as an associate partner.
