Case Study

How Microsoft Mapping Imagery
Enhances PTV’s Transport Planning Software
 

"Grey Matter's expertise in Microsoft Mapping products ensures a smooth and easy integration!” 

- Dr. Matthias Pfriem, Senior Product Manager 

PTV Image
PTV_partOfUmovity_black

PTV Group is a leading global software company specialising in traffic planning, simulation, and real-time management. With over 40 years of experience in mobility, this German-based company offers software products featuring proprietary algorithms for microscopic and macroscopic modelling, traffic simulation, and real-time traffic management. Its solutions benefit more than 2,500 cities and municipalities worldwide.

Sectors: Technology

Vendors: Microsoft

Products: Microsoft Mapping

The challenge

PTV needed the real-life transportation infrastructure to be accurately reflected in their model, to increase the accuracy of analysis and forecasting.

Our solution

No one knows mapping like we do, but to provide the best advice, we need to understand our clients.  Our mapping experts spent time with PTV’s team to understand the ins and outs of their transport planning products.

PTV helps identify ways to optimise existing transport systems, as well as how to design new systems that deliver efficiency. The models they use need to accurately represent the real world, so it’s essential that they are based on real-world data.

Our team quickly identified that for PTV to have an accurate model, they needed to integrate maps as background images directly into their software. And, that maps of the transport system would be an ideal starting point for building the infrastructure layer of the model. We suggested Microsoft Mapping as the solution. The precision of Microsoft Map’s satellite imagery for model development would enhance PTVs models so that they could better reflect the influence the specific geometries on traffic flow. Their resolution allows for the identification of important details such as the exact radius of a curve, the width of a sidewalk, the position of a stop line at a traffic light, and the length of a turn pocket.

Vissim_Scene_with_Satellite_Map

It's all in the results

PTV have been able to seamlessly integrate Microsoft Mapping into their products with the support of our mapping experts. Their transport planning software products PTV Visum, PTV Vissim, and PTV Vistro now deliver enhanced accuracy to their clients. The results have been impressive – one important application is optimising signal timings at intersections or along corridors to ensure the highest traffic flow capacity and reduce emissions. Another application is improving infrastructure for cycling or public transport and testing the impact on mode choice.

In the end, we were able to support PTV with the right mapping solutions to enhance their transport planning software, enabling the creation of precise transport and simulation models that reflect real-world traffic with the highest fidelity.  

These models and their analytical capabilities are helping PTV’s clients shape a better transport system for the future. 

Using Microsoft Maps' satellite images as the background map in our software provides our users with the detailed foundation they need to create accurate models of their transport system for analysis and improvement. Grey Matter's expertise in Microsoft Mapping products ensures a smooth and easy integration!

Dr. Matthias Pfriem, Senior Product Manager, PTV Group

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