“If possible please turn around!” If you are a stranger and have to rely on the instructions of your navigation system, you can unintentionally end up in a dead end. For example, if the navigation system did not register a construction site in time. The result: traffic chaos, traffic jams and frustrated drivers. Right now this will finally end up here. With the help of the “Bayern Beacon”, an intelligent construction site warning light, navigation devices should be able to access traffic data in real time. The innovative construction site pillars were tested for the first time in Lower Bavaria.
Externally, the “Bayern beacon” does not differ from conventional warning lights. The red and white hatched posts with the round light head are actually used to secure the road on construction sites. In the future they will have another function. The “Bayern Beacon” technology is hidden in the orange head of the warning light, says Stephan Stroh, head of the Central Traffic Management Office. A SIM card and a GPS receiver are installed there and can send your location in real time. An employee simply has to place the light in the right places and activate it. The location signal is then automatically sent to the traffic department of the Free State of Bavaria.
This is responsible for reporting Bavarian construction sites and can then register the location of the construction site. In this way, the beacon enables precise conclusions to be drawn about where and when construction activities are taking place. Navigation devices can then react accordingly – for example by rerouting. This is particularly useful if construction sites are postponed due to bad weather or are not active at short notice for other reasons, explains Stroh. In addition, the intelligent warning light can transmit its location even if the network is very poor.
So far, communication via traffic data has been much more complicated. The state building authorities enter the location and period of construction sites manually into the Bavarian construction site management system, explains a spokesman for the State Ministry for Housing, Construction and Transport. The traffic editorial team then checks the data entered and feeds the information into a nationwide traffic database. Navigation service providers in turn access this data. The use of the “Bayern Beacon” could improve data quality. Stroh knows that the traffic editorial team currently consists of only three traffic editors, some of whom still receive traffic data by fax. The Bayern beacon is therefore an “important factor” in simplifying communication about traffic data.
Pilot tests with the “Bayern Beacon” have been carried out on several sections of the route in Lower Bavaria since spring. A first test run was carried out near Waldkirchen in the Freyung-Grafenau district and on the B 533 near Hengersberg near Deggendorf. Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter also got a picture of the “Bayern Beacon” there. According to the State Ministry, the pilot tests should be completed by the end of next year. An evaluation will then be carried out as to whether the system can achieve the intended improvement in the data quality of the construction site reports. Until then, drivers must continue to trust the knowledge of their navigation system.