The creation of a digital mobility observatory was foreseen in the 2018-2023 coalition agreement. With the aim of putting digital transformation at the service of mobility observation, it is now in the launch phase. On Tuesday 2 May, its missions and functioning were presented by the minister for mobility and public works, (déi Gréng,) and Gil Georges, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering at the mobility planning department.

Responsible for collecting, analysing and disseminating personal and non-personal mobility data, the observatory’s objective is to enable “the emergence of an intelligent transport system, but also the planning of a mobility offer that anticipates the mobility demand of the population and businesses,” as stated in the draft bill that created the new entity.

It therefore responds to one of the three pillars on which the mobility planning carried out by the ministry of mobility and public works is based: observation, which “serves to understand current mobility behaviours, the mobility needs of people and the projection of future needs” (the other pillars being strategy and planning tools).

Several data sources

To do this, the observatory is collecting and processing a large amount of mobility-related data from several sources--which are expected to increase. The occupancy of car parks will be recorded by the P+Rs and the National Roads Administration, which is responsible for traffic counting, will provide information on the flow of vehicles in the country.

As regards to public transport, the CFL, the Public Transport Administration and Luxtram will provide the number of boardings and alightings of trains, buses and trams, as well as the routes of these vehicles. Post and Editus will provide information on the mobility behaviour of people travelling in Luxembourg. Among these data, those from automated systems will however have to be made consistent in order to make them usable by the observatory.

All this will involve the processing of personal data, which is necessary “to be able to adapt the mobility offer to the needs of the population.” In the draft bill, the legal basis invoked to justify the lawfulness of such processing is that of carrying out a mission of public interest. The text also specifies that an impact analysis will be carried out as part of the launch of the observatory and that it will specify the details of the said processing.

A new interactive website

At the press conference, Georges demonstrated a that gives a first view of the observatory’s data. This site leads internet users to an interactive dashboard giving access to key figures, a map visualising the flows between different regions of the grand duchy and its neighbours (mobility flows), average traffic data per vehicle (bicycle, car, utility) as well as to the average number of passengers per means of transport (train, tram) and per line or per stop.

As regards charging stations, the number of vehicles recharged and the quantity of electricity recharged per station can be found. Finally, the site gives the composition of the Luxembourg car fleet, by engine, by year of first registration, by manufacturer and by colour.

As these data are only the first steps in the work of the observatory, the ministry specifies that “the site and the data presented are far from perfect and that they “will be progressively developed.”

But several interesting figures can already be noted. For example, 144,883 travellers use the A3/CFL90 corridor and 201,878 use the A4/CFL60 corridor near the French border (number of trips per working day originating or terminating in the area in question). The vehicle fleet is made up of 44.7% diesel and 43.6% petrol vehicles, 5.6% hybrid vehicles, 3.2% 100% electric and 2.7% plug-in hybrid.

On Luxembourg’s transport portal website, a new tab “Plan” has also been added to centralise all information relating to mobility. It refers in particular to the website of the Multimodal Model and Scenarios for Cross-Border Mobility (MMUST), a project for modelling and simulating travel in the greater region. On this subject, Georges specified that “the MMUST is connected to the observatory, but it goes beyond it, because the observatory is focused on Luxembourg.” However, “discussions are underway” with certain entities in the greater region in order to create a potential synergy, perhaps with the aim of sharing data.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.