New measurement of noise and emissions at Mårtenstorget
In the Great European Mobility Project Elaborator Lund is working together with twelve European cities on how to design sustainable mobility in a city. Lund Municipality plans measures on Östra Mårtensgatan to reduce car traffic and instead make a better environment for pedestrians and cyclists.
- We will work with temporary measures, which are a cost-effective way of trying to influence the traffic environment and then learn lessons about what gives the desired effect, says Helena Runesson, traffic manager at Lund Municipality. We have together with Linköping University worked with focus groups and surveys to capture how pedestrians and cyclists experience the environment.
The first action is already in place.
- We have changed road signs in an attempt to make the one-way direction clearer, continues Helena Runesson. There are many road users who have to meet in one place and the road is partly very narrow. This makes it even more important to minimize the number of cars driving in the wrong direction. Next, we will try to direct traffic through flower pots to make errant runs more difficult. At the same time, vegetation is added, which the focus groups felt the site lacked. Hopefully what we are doing will produce several positive effects.
In order to know the impact of the measures, it is important to know what the current situation looks like and to see how the situation is changing. Previously, Future by Lund has already tested technology that measured traffic and parking on the part of the street that runs along Mårtenstorget in Lund using sensors. Through this, it has been possible to read the occupancy of the parking lots that are along the street, but also seen that many motorists drive in from the wrong direction on the one-way part of Östra Mårtensgatan.
Now another 31 sensors from Sensative have been set up. Half of the sensors measure noise and the other half focus on air quality. All sensors additionally measure temperature and humidity. Most of them are set up along Östra Mårtensgatan and on Mårtenstorget. Some sensors are set up in other places in the city to provide reference values, for example in Stadsparken, which is a place where values are expected to be lower, and along Östra Vallgatan, where values could be higher.
- We want to see if the interventions implemented by Lund Municipality make a difference, says Anders Trana, project manager in digital technology at Future by Lund. By knowing when Lund Municipality implements its measures, we can determine whether the measures are followed by reduced noise and reduced emissions. The combination of qualitative measurements, such as focus groups and questionnaires, and quantitative data collection through sensors complement each other and provide a deeper understanding.
In Lund, the work of the Elaborator project is carried out in several different parts. For example, the IoT platform Yggio from Lundabolaget Sensative is used as a common platform for the project in Europe. Lund also cooperates with Copenhagen to learn from their traffic solutions. The project runs June 2023 — Dec 2026 and is funded by the EU's Horizon Europe. In addition to Lund Municipality and Future by Lund Sensative, Swedish partners are Linköping University. Twelve European cities and many European partners are involved in the project.
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Focus on parking in cooperation with Copenhagen
Elaborator: Lund one of 12 European cities in an EU sustainable mobility project
Elaborator, subproject: Traffic status at Mårtenstorget