At the end of 2018, Hawa Dawa, in collaboration with Siemens Mobility and Ryd, conducted a pilot project to test the effectiveness of modern eco-routing approaches. The pilot demonstrated that eco-routing can indeed make a positive contribution.
The four-week pilot project “Clean Air in Munich” (SLIM) was designed to determine whether data-based route recommendations that simultaneously predict pollutant levels influence the route choices of Munich drivers. The project revealed that 40 percent of participants repeatedly chose the recommended eco-sensitive routes over the standard routes.
Avoid polluted regions with Ecourouting
Another goal of the project was to demonstrate how ecorouting can play a role in combating high levels of air pollution in cities. The results show that transparency regarding air quality and an appropriate incentive system can help change the behavior of individual drivers and, accordingly, improve air quality in cities. Another positive side effect of the project was that over 600 km of distance were saved. Because the recommended ecorouting routes were shorter than the drivers' standard routes, this saved around 85 kg of CO2.
"The pilot project demonstrates how personal behaviors can change even in a short period of time through greater transparency. This indicates enormous untapped potential in testing and adapting eco-sensitive routing alongside other intelligent mobility options,"
so Karim Tarraf, CEO of Hawa DawaHe continues:
“Hawa Dawa’s contribution to air quality monitoring, forecasting, and modeling is an important first step in designing measures to combat air pollution.”
Key role of ecorouting
Hawa Dawa’s 24-hour forecasts of nitrogen (NO2) concentrations throughout Munich formed the basis for Siemens’ routing algorithm, which provides route recommendations for the Ryd supervised test group. Using anonymized historical travel data, the most frequently traveled routes were identified, and based on pollution forecasts, a more environmentally friendly (and in many cases shorter) route was determined. Drivers were given a notice of the "eco-friendly" route before the trip, which they could voluntarily select.
There's potential here, especially for cities that violate EU limits for particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. Munich, too, made headlines with elevated levels and has a comparatively high traffic volume. If implemented on a larger scale, eco-routing could play a key role in avoiding pollution hotspots and reducing pollutant levels, according to the IoT startup Hawa Dawa.
Host city sought for larger project
To verify this, the project partners are looking for a host city willing to invest in smart infrastructure and new connected mobility measures to alleviate the problem of traffic-related air pollution.
"Through connected mobility, we can not only improve the efficiency of traffic but also reduce its environmental impact. In this way, we are actively contributing to improving air quality in Munich,"
explained Michael Peter, CEO of Siemens Mobility. Siemens' Digital Lab supported the project with AI-supported traffic data analysis. Taking it further, measures such as dynamic speed limits and traffic flow distribution could complement targeted ecorouting.
