SYNCHROMODE mid-term review
On 4 March 2025, the European Commission and SYNCHROMODE partners gathered for the project’s mid-term review, encompassing the first period of the project from the beginning to October 2024.
The project coordinators Evangelos Mitsakis and Dimitris Tzanis presented the activities carried out so far and outlined the planned next steps. The session provided an opportunity to take stock of the progress made and to adjust the planning to ensure successful delivery of the results.
The good news is that SYNCHROMODE is on track and committed to making this project a success!
When it comes to dissemination and communication, SYNCHROMODE has participated in 15 events in total since the beginning, with 2 international events at the ITS in Dubai and TRB AM in Washington D.C.
It is also part of the Multimodal Traffic Management Cluster, which meets regularly to facilitate peer exchange, promote joint project visibility at events, and organize interactive sessions. We are one of the main contributors to the Cluster’s strategic roadmap and serve as a leading partner within the initiative.
In terms of publications, 4 have been accepted during this period, while several other abstracts have already been submitted and are pending positive outcomes. And there’s more to come!
Several core components of the SYNCHROMODE Toolbox have already been developed and deployed, including the Data Quality Tool, which assesses real-time and historical data from multiple sources; the Trajectories Analytics module, which extracts traffic patterns from floating car data; the Public Transport Service KPIs module, which monitors and estimates public transport service quality; and the Prediction Module, which integrates machine learning models to forecast traffic states and support proactive decision-making.
At the same time, additional modules are under active development. These focus on ensuring resilient multimodal network traffic management during both planned and unplanned events, leveraging advanced simulation techniques and state-of-the-art optimization methods to support integrated and dynamic traffic management strategies.
RTR Conference and Multimodal Traffic Management Cluster meeting
SYNCHROMODE participated in two relevant events in Brussels in February 2025: the RTR Conference and the Multimodal Traffic Management Cluster meeting (MTMC).
The RTR Conference – standing for Results for Road transport Research – has taken place from 11 to 13 February 2025 in Brussels. Organised by the European Commission, it aimed at showcasing the progress and impacts of EU-funded road transport projects, covering key areas such as green vehicles, urban mobility, logistics, intelligent transport systems, safety, and automated vehicles. The Conference has featured 26 sessions, 92 projects and 100 speakers, among which SYNCHROMODE!
Indeed, on 13 February, SYNCHROMODE had the chance to participate in the afternoon session together with ACUMEN Project and DELPHI_EU project, delving into multimodal traffic management for door-to-door transport of passengers and freight. Dimitris Tzanis from CERTH has provided valuable insights about the project activities and progress.
This Conference not only allowed to showcase the project, but also engaging with stakeholders, exchange ideas, identify synergies and incorporate lessons learned into our work.
The Multimodal Traffic Management Cluster met on 12 February 2025 for a fruitful session. MTMC is a collaborative initiative involving seven EU-funded Horizon Europe research projects under the topic of Multimodal Traffic Management (MTM), including: FRONTIER, TANGENT, ORCHESTRA, DIT4TraM, SYNCHROMODE, ACUMEN, and DELPHI. It is dedicated to facilitating multimodal network and traffic management shaping the future of multimodal mobility in Europe.
During the session, the projects have presented their use cases along with their technology progress and readiness levels. Useful lessons learnt have been shared as well from past projects such as TANGENT, FRONTIER, Orchestra2020 and DIT4TraM.
This in-person meeting also dived into a session on potential synergies of case studies and possibilities for cross testing and evaluation of the different solutions developed between projects.
The cluster’s project officer Thiago Tavares opened the session and Tiffany Vlemmings from DGMOVE provided an overview of the current policy framework and legislative context of the upcoming working program to set the scene on how our projects can inform the policy. In addition, she provided the representatives of the projects with information about the priorities and initiatives on behalf of the new Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism European Commission
SYNCHROMODE and the MTM cluster together, are driving forward transformative and innovative solutions to meet the evolving demands of future multimodal mobility.
Follow the journey of the MTM Cluster on LinkedIn.
Multimodal Traffic Management between the tulips!
The Keukenhof season of 2025 has just started, which means SYNCHROMODE partners will start implementing the first PoC for Multimodal Traffic Management around Keukenhof.
We will be testing two predictive modules:
- Longer-term predictions (5 to 1 days ahead) for visitor numbers and associated network delays. These forecasts will support the activation of information campaigns via FlitsMeister and guide the selection of public transport capacity scenarios.
- Shorter-term predictions (15, 30, and 45 minutes ahead) for travel times on the network. These will inform decision-making for both the route choices of the Keukenhof Express, operated by Qbuzz and the activation of traffic management strategies, as well as local information campaigns via FlitsMeister.
Throughout the season, all relevant stakeholders will have access to two advanced tools provided via the Synchromode project:
- FlowControl (Be-Mobile): This offers insights into prediction outcomes for the network around Keukenhof alongside the real-time traffic situation.
- TrafficDash (MAPtm): This delivers real-time and historical information on the traffic network, incidents, bus positions, and active roadworks.
Additionally, MAPtm’s Traffic Management Centre, VCMAP, will use both dashboards to supply stakeholders with daily monitoring of network performance, special events, public transport conditions, and the quality of the predictions. This comprehensive approach enables continuous improvement in operations throughout the season.
New research publication for SYNCHROMODE: “A Data-Driven Decision Support System for Multimodal Network and Traffic Management”
The SYNCHROMODE Project has been part of the publication of a research paper in this early spring 2025. The paper, titled “A Data-Driven Decision Support System for Multimodal Network and Traffic Management – SYNCHROMODE’, has been published in the conference proceedings “Climate Crisis and resilient transportation System, Lecture Notes in Intelligent Transportation and Infrastructure”, Springer editions, of the 7th Conference on Sustainable Mobility, CSuM2024.
The paper highlights the role of innovative and disruptive technologies as well as new mobility solutions to tackle the challenges defining the transport network and traffic management. Indeed, the European transportation network is facing significant challenges including traffic congestion, safety concerns, greenhouse gas emissions and associated costs.
To address these issues, SYNCHROMODE develops a data-driven decision support system aimed at enhancing multimodal network and traffic management.
The paper presents the development process for this system, which incorporates the data quality assessment, the modelling and simulation of multimodal transport, traffic prediction, network optimization techniques, and definition of novel multimodal Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
The proposed system facilitates the prediction and optimization of multi-modal transport supply and demand data, the instantaneous and effective reaction to and management of various types of events, both planned and un-planned, as well as the communication and coordination of the various in-volved actors. The practicality and effectiveness of elements of this toolbox will lead to the creation of three distinct services, and specifically those of:
- Network-wide data exchange and integration
- Cooperative dashboard for real-time monitoring and prediction of network-wide multimodal transport and traffic, and
- Resilient multimodal transport network and traffic management support tool.
The services of the SYNCHROMODE Toolbox will be assessed in three case studies in Greece (Thessaloniki), the Netherlands, and Spain (Madrid), emphasising their potential to transform the transport network and traffic management across Europe.
In the paper, you will find the project’s objectives and scope, the methodology, the case studies applications as well as the challenges faced, and lessons learnt during the first year of the project.
The authors Evangelos Mitsakis, Dimitris Tzanis, Viktoria Petkani, Alexandros Dolianitis, Evangelos Mintsis, Areti Kotsi & Vasileios Psonis are affiliated to the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas – Hellenic Institute of Transport in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Access the publication and the full paper here: A Data-Driven Decision Support System for Multimodal Network and Traffic Management – SYNCHROMODE | SpringerLink