Keeping Luxembourg moving Around half of Luxembourg city’s working population travels in from neighbouring countries, adding to traffic congestion issues in the city. We spoke to Dr Francesco Viti about the Merlin project’s work in developing new tools designed to help manage transport infrastructure more effectively. The Grand Duchy
of Luxembourg is home to several European institutions and has a thriving economy, attracting many workers from beyond the country’s borders. Around 50 percent of Luxembourg city’s working population travels in from neighbouring countries, including Belgium, Germany and France, which adds to congestion issues in the city. “We can’t limit the discussion about congestion in Luxembourg to the urban areas, it’s a national issue, which even extends to the wider region,” says Dr Francesco Viti, Associate Professor at MobiLab, the Transport Research Group at the University of Luxembourg. Congestion problems that originated in neighbouring countries can then affect Luxembourg city, and extend further. “We’ve seen examples of congestion problems that originated with an accident in France, in a queue of commuters, resulting in a crossing of Luxembourg that ended in Belgium,” outlines Dr Viti.
Congestion in Luxembourg This represents a fairly extreme example, but it is nevertheless illustrative of the challenges facing transport planners in the city. As the Principal Investigator of the Merlin project, Dr Viti is working to develop new tools to help manage Luxembourg’s transport infrastructure more effectively, which is a pressing issue. “Even during the pandemic, with lower demand, we still observed huge queues and traffic problems. With people beginning to return to their jobs, congestion problems are returning as before,” he stresses. One of the main historical reasons behind this congestion is that the transport system has always been responsive rather than forward-looking. “There wasn’t a real vision - mobility problems arose and then infrastructure was changed accordingly,” explains Dr Viti. “Over the last few years, the government has set new guidelines for developing sustainable mobility plans but the introduction of new emerging mobility services and vehicle technologies makes it difficult to predict the impact of future infrastructure changes. I was part of a group of experts which created a roadmap to set a timeline for new investments towards 2050.”
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We can use a
dynamic set of data to continuously adapt our system towards what we call the digital twin version of reality. This is about reproducing traffic patterns, and then projecting how they could change if you manipulate the system. The roadmap outlines the different measures that need to be taken in order to meet wider goals around reducing congestion and carbon emissions. One important issue for the Luxembourg government is around the electrification of transport, and Dr Viti says moves are being made in this direction. “For example, the bus fleet is gradually being replaced with electrical and hybrid buses, which contributes to the reduction of carbon emissions,” he outlines. “The government is also incentivising people to buy electric cars or bikes. Currently in Luxembourg you can buy a bike
for up to 50 percent of its actual market price, and strong monetary incentives are also given for electric cars. There are really substantial subsidies from the government if you buy any electric or hybrid car. However, these types of measures alone can’t solve traffic problems.” A major priority is to encourage a general shift to public transport and more sustainable modes of transport. Rather than building more roads, which are likely to rapidly become congested once they open, the aim is to focus the investments on fostering multi-modal systems. “For example, people travelling into Luxembourg
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