Towards Inclusive Real-Time Traffic Signal Control in Vienna

Modern urban traffic control systems can adjust signal timings in real time to keep traffic flowing efficiently. However, adaptive traffic signal control is still primarily designed to optimize conditions for motorized traffic, while the needs of pedestrians and cyclists are rarely considered explicitly. As a result, real-time detection of non-motorized traffic demand is often lacking. As cities pursue more sustainable, inclusive, and people-centered mobility solutions, this approach is becoming increasingly inadequate. 

The Vienna pilot within the FEDORA project represents an important step towards a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to traffic management. Led by ITS Vienna Region and implemented in collaboration with the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), the City of Vienna, and additional project partners, the pilot investigates how real-time information from all transport modes can be integrated into traffic signal control. 

A central challenge is the availability of reliable real-time data for vulnerable road users. To address this limitation, the pilot evaluates innovative camera-based sensing technologies capable of detecting and counting not only motor vehicles but also pedestrians and cyclists. By expanding the range of data available to traffic management systems, these sensors provide a significantly richer understanding of traffic conditions at intersections and along urban corridors. 

Image licensed under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication).

 

Based on this enhanced situational awareness, FEDORA introduces a Social Optimum Model designed to support the allocation of green time across different transport modes. The model will be integrated into Vienna’s existing traffic signal control infrastructure and will enable signal plans to be adjusted in five-minute intervals. Rather than minimizing delays for a single transport mode, the Social Optimum Model aims to maximize overall societal benefit by considering the collective impacts of signal timing decisions across all road users. 

A central component of this approach is the definition of appropriate weighting factors for the various transport modes. Determining these weights is inherently complex, as priorities may vary according to location, time of day, traffic demand, or broader mobility policy objectives. The pilot therefore not only assesses the technical feasibility of real-time multimodal optimization but also explores how adaptive weighting strategies can reflect evolving urban mobility needs and policy goals. 

By combining advanced sensing technologies with innovative optimization methods, the Vienna pilot demonstrates how traffic management can evolve from vehicle-centered control to truly people-centered mobility management. Integrating the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists into a single decision-making framework helps create a transport system that is not only more efficient, but also fairer, safer and better aligned with the goals of sustainable urban mobility.  

This entry is part of the FEDORA Blog series, where FEDORA partners share their insights from working in the project. This contribution has been provided by FEDORA partner ITS Vienna.

The FEDORA Data Space: A New Way to Share Mobility Data Without Giving Up Control

A Data Space, Not a Data Silo: How FEDORA Rethinks Mobility Data Sharing

The FEDORA Data Space was developed as part of FEDORA Deliverable D3.1 – Integrated Cross-Sectoral Data Space.

Sharing mobility data across organisations has traditionally meant one of two unsatisfying choices: pool everything into a single central repository and lose control over it, or keep everything locked in separate silos and lose the ability to collaborate. Neither works well for a sector like mobility, where traffic authorities, transport operators, research institutes and cities all hold pieces of the puzzle — but none of them wants to hand their data over to someone else’s server.

The FEDORA Data Space is built around a different idea: a “data space.” Rather than a central database, it’s an interoperable framework — common governance rules, shared standards, and a set of enabling services — that lets organisations exchange data directly with each other while each one keeps full control, or sovereignty, over its own data. Data physically stays with its owner until a trusted partner requests it and agrees to the owner’s usage terms; nothing is copied into a central pool by default.

Architecturally, FEDORA’s Data Space follows the International Data Spaces Reference Architecture Model (IDS-RAM), chosen for its mature, connector-based approach to secure exchange and its growing adoption across other European mobility data space initiatives. In practice, this means every participating organisation runs its own “Dataspace Connector” — a piece of software that handles publishing data offers, negotiating access, and transferring data securely and directly to another participant’s connector. No central authority ever sits in the middle of an actual data transfer.

 

Interaction of Data Space with other FEDORA Spaces. The Data Space provides input data for the Network Management Services Space and Simulation Space.
 

Around this core, FEDORA adds four components that work together: a Public Catalogue so anyone can discover what data exists without needing to know who holds it; a Smart Data Contracts Module, a blockchain-based ledger that records every data transaction in a tamper-proof, verifiable way; and a Mobility Data Harmonisation, Enrichment and Synthetisation Engine, which transforms raw, inconsistent datasets from different sources into a common, higher-quality format. Only the catalogue is centrally hosted — everything involving the actual movement of data is deliberately decentralised, once per participant.

The result is a system designed around seven concrete objectives: 

  • a public entry point for discovery, 
  • secure and encrypted data transfer, 
  • common data formats, 
  • interoperability with other data spaces, 
  • robust identity and access management, 
  • machine-readable contracts with full traceability, 
  • built-in data quality improvement.

The FEDORA Data Space is currently being rolled out across FEDORA’s project partners, ahead of a wider pilot phase across six European demonstration sites — from Vienna to Nicosia — each testing how the data space performs in real, operational conditions.

It’s infrastructure most people will never see directly — but it’s what will let a transport authority in one country responsibly share real, useful mobility data with a research team in another, without either side losing control of what they own