The MOSCA project provided a set of tools for improving the efficiency of door-to-door transport of goods in urban areas by collaboratively providing demand and supply-side information in one single environment/system. Five modules were developed as solutions to answer some peculiar urban freight problems and needs of the cities’ administrations and logistics and transport operators. Based on extensive research on urgent user needs, a set of advanced applications were designed. For these applications suitable modules have been identified and developed. The figure below provides a short summary of how the user requirements (external circle) impact the applications (middle circle), which were in turn mapped into the MOSCA modules (Inner circle). The MOSCA system moduls communicate with each other and further external systems. It’s important to highlight that MOSCA aimed at exploiting project outputs supporting applications in existing and newly developed information systems. The information system development was market-led from the very beginning involving both transport operators and relevant service providers in extricating their needs.
One of the modul developed by MOSCA project is MOSCA FREIGHT (VISEVA-W). VISEVA-W integrates freight transport data into urban transport models, allowing modelling urban freight traffic and it was tested in Chemnitz.
Main results achieved are:
· Demand model for urban freight transport is possible and useful
· The effort for data collection/mining depends on the availability of behavioural data and the definition of freight traffic classes (VISEVA supports individual definitions of freight traffic classes)
· The software is a pioneer in integrated management of freight and passengers transport modelling.
· The assignment on the network delivers traffic flows for a range of different freight and passengers transport vehicle types
· Deep analyses of freight transport in connection with the passenger transport is possible, to support city traffic management
After the project, the methodology of modules integration defined in MOSCA was further developed and applied in the Trimode[1] project. In particular, in Trimode the transport network model (simulating both passenger and transport activity) integrates energy and economy components to be used by the European Commission for the assessment of major transport infrastructure projects as well as of a wide range of transport policies.
The MOSCA-FREIGHT module flowed into new product developments to complement the freight related part of urban transport planning and optimisation from the public side, but also to improve the planning tools for the private side. VISEVA-W is now integrated into the overall model structure of the VISEVA model for passenger transport demand and the VISUM model for traffic assignment, helping transport planners in conducting traffic analyses for cities and optimising the overall transport system.