TRAFFIC SIGNALS AS A SERVICE

Ultra-efficient mobility with real-time adaptive signal control

Bob Randsdorp, business development director for Haskoning’s smart mobility division, will be presenting at the Intertraffic Amsterdam 2026 Summit on the topic of delivering mobility policy through real-time adaptive signal control for safer, cleaner and efficient networks. Welcome to the concept of Software-as-a-Service for traffic signals.

Intertraffic: If I am, let's say, a local authority, how would I be able to actionthe knowledge and information that I will take away from listening to your presentation, do you think?

Bob Randsdorp (BR): If you would listen to my presentation as a local authority, that would be brilliant because this is exactly who we are trying to reach with the solution that we offer: road authorities who try to manage mobility with traffic signal installations. It will help you as a local authority to implement the mobility policy on your roads. All road authorities, local, regional and even national, are nowadays struggling to have their policy executed on their network while there are more people on the roads and using more different modes of transportation and they all like to have priority.

As an individual, you want to get from A to B in the quickest way. Of course, that clashes with the challenges you have as a traffic authority, so you need to somehow make these two contrasting elements work together. This is where the Haskoning solution comes in.

Intertraffic: How does the solution that you are offering do that?

BR: The Haskoning solution that we offer is that you convert the problem creators, the road users, to become part of the solution by giving them the fastest way from A to B, but they are also part of the solution by implementing the policy that a road authority, would like to see on your roads. That's the beauty of the whole ecosystem that we have been implementing here in the Netherlands and in Flanders. It’s also now sparking increasing interest across Europe and even the USA. It focuses on a new type of traffic signal installation, the so-called intelligent traffic signal installation.

''As an individual, you want to get from A to B in the quickest way, but that clashes with the challenges you have as a traffic authority, so you need to somehow make these two contrasting elements work together''

Intertraffic: And as has been well documented, new roads attract more traffic.

BR: Exactly, so you have to do the best with what you have. If you want to have the most efficient mobility on your network, traffic management is key and if you then look into the instruments that traffic management can offer to a road authority. then the good old traffic light is, potentially speaking, still the most efficient and effective instrument that a road authority has to steer traffic. There's a legally binding contract, you could say, between road users and traffic lights that you need to stop when it's red and you are allowed to go when it's green. Our solution takes that as the starting point of how we create software.

Intertraffic: At what point does the conversation turn to policy?

BR: The policy of the road authority is the starting point of what the traffic signal installation should do and that has become possible now with all the new technology that is out there. In contrast to the previous generation of traffic signals, this solution optimises traffic every second by focussing on real-time behaviour of all different modes of transportation and benchmarking that to the policy.

The Haskoning solution is a fully dynamic solution. Every second it calculates the best way of assigning green times according to the traffic out there resulting in the least amount of costs for society according to the policy. And this is the whole change. So you're going from a reactive static system to a proactive dynamic, fully responsive system that can adapt continuously according to what is going out there in relation to the policy you want to have.

Intertraffic: So how does the local authority benefit from this change of emphasis, technologically speaking?

BR: The benefit for a road authority is that its policy is being implemented real-time on its roads and also get a much better ‘buy-in’ from the road users because travel times decrease. Road user benefit from this solution as they can communicate with the solution by sharing their location in a completely GDPR-compliant way. You make the traffic light smarter and when you're doing that you also get much faster green because it can start to respond much earlier.

''You're going from a reactive static system to a proactive dynamic, fully responsive system that can adapt continuously according to what is going out there in relation to the policy you want to have''

Intertraffic: What is it with the Netherlands and traffic signal-related innovation?

BR: The Netherlands is being perceived as the world champions of traffic signals. This is partly due to the vast network of detection loops, the largest in the world, which is the traditional source of data for traffic signals. With the uprising of new data sources such as camera detection data and floating movement data (real time movement data from different types of vehicles, e.g. personal vehicles, emergency services, public transport, but also bicycles and pedestrians) you can have all types of different modes of transport connecting to this system and with that you get a much more granular view of what is happening on your network.

With these new data sources and new software technologies, it became possible to create this next generation of intelligent traffic signals. The results are impressive: Safety and throughput increase, emissions are lowered, road users feel more heard, and policy is being executed.

Intertraffic Summit Theatre 3
Tuesday 10 March @ 14.45

For more details about Bob’s presentation, click HERE.