They would have happily given up the title "Storage City" in Darmstadt.

And you didn't "deserve" it either, said Head of Mobility Michael Kolmer (Die Grünen) on Tuesday at the presentation of a new smartphone app.

It should soon allow road users to drive through the city center as relaxed as possible: whether on a bicycle, in their own car or by bus and train.

Kolmer said that topics such as "intelligent traffic control" and "green waves" have been on the way to the "Green City" for years.

That is precisely why Germany is already comparatively well positioned.

Markus Schug

Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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However, the results of the Inrix study published at the beginning of the year do not fit in with this at all.

Because according to the transport service provider, which evaluates mobility data, Darmstadt is one of the six cities with the most congestion in Germany.

Statistically speaking, commuters on the streets of the southern Hessian municipality stand in a queue somewhere for around 46 hours a year.

1.5 km long test track

Kolmer, on the other hand, speaks of methodological errors in the survey, which basically still assumes a speed limit of 50 in town and then determines the deviation from this average value.

In Darmstadt, on the other hand, people are happy that a maximum speed of just 30 kilometers per hour has long since been introduced in many districts.

Which is a declared goal of the municipality for reasons of road safety and environmental protection.

More important than being able to drive as fast as possible is to get from one place to another evenly and without too many stops.

If it is possible to stabilize traffic on the streets, i.e. to ensure green waves with digital control if possible, then speed will no longer be so important.

This is exactly what will be made easier for road users in the city of more than 160,000 inhabitants in the future, with the help of the new “Signal2X” app, which will give all road users – regardless of whether they are traveling by car, bicycle, bus or tram – the appropriate information for them to show optimal travel speeds.

The app, which is financed by the city and can therefore be downloaded free of charge, will be available in the first half of this year, said Stefan Eckert, representative of Yunex Traffic Deutschland GmbH, which is responsible for the development.

Intelligent transport systems, such as the traffic light phase assistant currently being tested in Darmstadt with the support of the federal government, made an important contribution to sustainable and efficient mobility in cities.

Specifically, the app shows the user how long it will take for the next traffic light in front of him to turn green and at what speed he should ideally approach the light signal in order to get through the intersection more or less smoothly and without having to brake.

Not for car drivers, who you don't want to tempt to speed, but for cyclists this can even be combined with the advice to pedal a little harder in order to still reach the green phase.

The EUR 1.4 million model project, which is now being tested on a 1.5-kilometer test route on and next to Nieder-Ramstädter Straße, is then to be quickly expanded to other main traffic axes, announced Ralf Tank, head of the "Cooperative Control Centre" project. , on.

Darmstadt has an extensive real-time system of cameras, sensors and induction loops that feed the traffic control center.

The task now is to get the data streams onto the streets in a way that is profitable for everyone.