If it comes to applying traffic telematics to protect the environment Austria is the uncontested trailblazer in Europe. In our newsletter from April 2008 we already referred to the success of the first immission controlled system in Tirol ("Environmental ATM": immission controlled dynamic speed limits on Austria's motorways).

In January 2008 a second system was put into operation in Upper Austria. By order of the ASFINAG as operator of the motorways and expressways in Austria four further so-called traffic control systems (TCS) "Environment" are realised and put into operation. The consortium Siemens AG Austria - Heusch/Boesefeldt GmbH (SHB) is in charge of the setting up of the respective sub-centres.

The TCS in Tirol and Upper Austria control the maximum speed limit in relation to the measured nitric oxide load. This procedure was now extended by considering the predictions of the traffic behaviour. At the same time, a new procedure was developed at Graz University of Technology, which facilitates a control on the basis of fine dust pollution. This procedure, too, takes into account the traffic predictions determined at the VMIS centre.

Heusch/Boesefeldt is in charge of the realisation, the integration and the putting into operation of the TCS "Environment". Currently, SHB realises the centres in Salzburg, Kärnten, Steiermark as well as the westward expansion of the system in Tirol. The extremely short realisation period of six months for all four sub-centres testifies to the quality and the simplicity of the configurability of the software for sub-centres developed by Heusch/Boesefeldt.

Until January 2009 all of the systems are to be in open test mode. The systems in Salzburg und Kärnten are just on the brink of being put into operation.