Wasn’t it yesterday that we published our last retrospect? At Heusch/Boesefeldt we stand amazed at the fact that yet another year has gone by. Our in-house events clearly made time fly.

This spring – after four years of successful work as an independent company – the decision was made to polish up our appearance. Together with a witty local advertising agency we not only worked on new information material and an internet relaunch but on a new corporate design as well. Just in time for this year’s Intertraffic in April in Amsterdam we were able to present ourselves with this design.

Within our new internet presence we also improved our trans-regional traffic service EuregioTraffic. Under www.heuboe.de/euregiotraffic2 the road user can get transregional traffic information from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. On the basis of a map provided by Google™Maps messages are displayed textually (using the language independent DATEX data catalogue) and clearly positioned in the map. We have realised a similar project with the traffic centre of the Netherlands, the VCNL (Verkeerscentrum Nederland - Rijkswaterstaat).

It was in the second half of this year that - on behalf of the Hessisches Landesamt für Straßen- und Verkehrswesen - we integrated the ASDA/FOTO (Automatic Tracking of Moving Traffic Jams/ Forecasting of Traffic Objects) technique into the traffic centre Hessen. In co-operation with the Daimler research department, this technique, which is used for the tracing of congestion objects and travel time determination, was put into operation after a successful test phase. In the Hessian Rhine-Main metropolitan area the determined travel times are displayed on dynamic direction signs with integrated congestion information (dWiSta), so that the road user is provided with an updated, traffic dependent direction signing. Based on Kerner’s three-phase traffic theory a reconstruction and tracking of spatiotemporal traffic patterns is carried out, which makes it possible for the traffic centre to precisely determine and monitor moving traffic incidents.

After the first „Traffic Control System – Environment“ in Austria had been put into operation at the end of 2007, four further such sub-centres were installed at the end of this year. While in many places measures against climate change and air pollution are still merely being discussed, Austria has long since taken steps. A permanent speed limit is not in line with the modern sense of mobility. Therefore, procedures were developed here which allow the option of dynamic speed limits on the basis of model calculations on pollutant dispersal. Initially, it was only with regard to nitrogen monoxide measurements that the control had been carried out, in 2008, however, a procedure on the basis of fine particulates (PM10) was added. Heusch/Boesefeldt has implemented both of these procedures for the ASFINAG and introduced them as additional control algorithms in the sub-centres of the VMIS (Verkehrsmanagement- und –informationssystem /traffic management and information system).

A listing of all our projects in 2008 would go beyond the scope of this retrospect. If you are interested, however, you can find a detailed review on the mentioned topics as well as others under “News”.

At this point we also would like to thank all our customers and project partners for the trust they’ve put in us and the good co-operation in 2008.

Last but not least an information which might also concern you. Once again we refrained from sending out personal season greetings and Christmas presents. Instead we donated the money to the Aachener Engel e.V., a local association which untiringly takes care of the sick and poor in our region. The needy will profit from these financial means right away without any deductions.

We wish all of you and your families a Merry Christmas, peaceful holidays and all the best for the year 2009.

Yours

Dr. Dirk Hübner      Berthold Jansen

and all employees of Heusch/Boesefeldt GmbH