Anyone wishing to work with data on highways, regional roads, and bike paths in Flanders can now access the Flemish Traffic Data Portal (Vlaams Dataportaal Verkeersgegevens, or VDV), a new online platform from the Flemish Traffic Center.
With this initiative, the Flemish Traffic Center, which is responsible for traffic data management at the Roads and Traffic Agency (Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer, or AWV), aims to respond to the rapidly growing demand for mobility statistics and also fulfills an objective outlined in the policy memorandum of Flemish Minister of Mobility and Public Works Annick De Ridder (N-VA), namely making traffic data available to cities and municipalities.
24/7 monitoring
You could already use the DATEX II data feeds, the European standard for exchanging traffic data, to request real-time traffic information about Flemish highways from the Flemish Traffic Center, but now highway, regional road, and bicycle data are all available on a single platform, rather than scattered across multiple channels and portals.
Users can select the data they need on a road map using filters, either by vehicle type or by measurement method, such as cameras, in-pavement loops, and radars. The data is available at quarter-hour, hour, day, and road segment levels and may be reused free of charge, for example, in new mobility apps.
The figures come from various sources: 24/7 monitoring on Flemish highways, counts via GPS devices in trucks (as part of the road toll system), measurement campaigns on regional roads, and the fixed bicycle counters on the Regional Functional Bicycle Route Network.
“Stop fragmentation”
The platform is primarily aimed at mobility officials, local governments, researchers, and journalists, but according to Minister De Ridder, it will only become truly powerful if other organizations in the mobility sector also participate.
“By gathering and sharing as much data as possible, we can avoid fragmentation in mobility policy and achieve greater efficiency.” The Minister is calling on other government agencies, local and provincial authorities, and mobility services to also upload their own traffic data to the VDV.
The portal is accessible via the websites of AWV and the Traffic Center. It complements the existing Traffic Indicators, which the Traffic Center publishes monthly, covering traffic jams, traffic behavior, traffic volumes, and traffic composition on Flemish highways.
