Bordeaux Metropolitan Area

Logo Bordeaux Metropole

Presentation

Bordeaux Metropolitan Area (www.bordeaux-metropole.fr) is an inter-municipal public cooperation body (EPCI) bringing together 28 municipalities within a shared organisational structure. It currently has a population of 843,738 (INSEE 2022) centred around its main city, Bordeaux (265,328 inhabitants). It is responsible for a range of functions, including the management of a road network (3,003 km), cycle paths and lanes (1,425 km) and a traffic control centre (PC-RT), whilst also acting as the organising authority for transport (sedeplacer.bordeaux-metropole.fr).

The Bordeaux Metropolitan Area has comprehensive digital solutions (ITS) in place to manage daily traffic and urban travel flows, notably through the centralised traffic light control system developed and operated by its subsidiary Gertrude SAEM. This adaptive expert system combines the ability to react every second with fully centralised decision-making to control individual traffic lights and intersections, or an entire neighbourhood.

Hosting the 2015 World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) acted as a catalyst for the Bordeaux ecosystem, with the first technological demonstrators of C-ITS (Cooperative ITS) based on the exchange of standardised messages between the urban road network and connected vehicles (I2V), which especially complement global systems.

Subsequent involvement in a number of successive European projects made it possible to set up and subsequently enhance a local C-ITS pilot site. The TRL[1] scale-up took place gradually, building on the national and European state-of-the-art technological framework (see Figure 1), and progressed to the production stage. This site has enabled the development, testing and large-scale deployment of a suite of nearly 30 urban C-ITS use cases across the Bordeaux metropolitan area, integrated into a smartphone app; providing support for public policy across various sectors:

  • in city centres: improving safety for the most vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians, when sharing the road with motor vehicles, especially at intersections, and supporting the development of active transport modes; this complements existing applications such as speed advice (eco-driving) ahead of traffic-light intersections and priority requests for designated vehicles;
  • on ring roads[2] and urban access roads: improving safety for road users and staff, and optimising real-time information for road users, particularly regarding roadworks, incidents or specific risks (e.g. flooding) along the route;
  • in the surrounding suburbs: encouraging transition to Mass Transit via park-and-ride facilities, providing information on access to carpool areas and dedicated lanes – road safety.

On 20 October 2023, Bordeaux was awarded a prize for this scaling-up initiative (“The Frontrunner of Geographical Coverage”, see Figure 2) by the jury of the European harmonisation platform C-Roads. 

The initial decision to focus on a smartphone app facilitated this scaling-up.

The smartphone is the most familiar everyday connected and mobile device[3] that can act as an on-board ITS unit. This also helps to make V2X more widely accessible and compensate[4] for the fact that there are still not enough vehicles with built-in connectivity on the roads. The Coopits app can also be seen as an incremental innovation[5] on digital navigation apps (e.g. Waze) with its notification overlay feature.

[1] Technological Readiness Level

[2] Road infrastructure managed by DIR Atlantique

[3] La démocratisation du V2X, enjeu de l’accessibilité à des déplacements plus sûrs pour tous (The widespread adoption of V2X: a key factor in making travel safer for everyone) Dimitri COEURET, in TEC magazine no. 262, September 2024.

[4] According to the 18th AXA Barometer 2022, nearly 45% of drivers use their smartphone’s GPS, with an estimated increase to 60% by 2030, combined with improved accuracy.

[5] Acceptance of an incremental innovation based on an established technology as a usage norm: an exploratory approach applied to a C-ITS mobile driving assistance application, Mehdi CHAHIR, CEREMA/ PsyCAP

https://www.bordeaux-metropole.fr/ Nouvelle fenêtre

Projects / Use Cases

C-the Difference [2016-2018] was the pivotal project in the urban sector, involving a consortium centred around two deployment and testing areas: Bordeaux Metropolitan Area and the city of Helmond [NL]. This project facilitated the transition from a technological proof of concept to a proof of value in use, shifting the focus towards mobility needs in line with public policy on urban transport. The cities selected use cases designed to improve traffic efficiency and reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions, while achieving a significant rate of adoption. Feedback in 2018 (City Twinning Workshop).

C-Roads-France [2016-2021] enabled the pilot site to be integrated into the national C-ITS architecture and the European harmonisation process. 

A local physical and software platform has been developed (and hosted by NeoGLS) to ensure the interoperability and security of real-time exchanges with the national node (Nfr-ITS-S). It helps anchor the project in local needs and is based on the French C-ITS technological platform, which is interoperable and robust (respect for privacy, cybersecurity, etc.). This platform incorporates the national Coopits application, sponsored primarily by the French Ministry, which was deployed in the Bordeaux region and then successfully tested in a real-world setting [2021].

A local partnership seminar was organised in late 2021, providing an opportunity for feedback and proposals for the framework of a shared roadmap at the population centre level.

InDID [2022-2024] – the Bordeaux Metropolitan Area has joined the ‘InDID’ (Infrastructure DIgitale de Demain / Digital Infrastructure of Tomorrow) project consortium at the Ministry’s suggestion. This has made it possible to improve and expand the catalogue of use cases, tailoring it to the challenges of the metropolitan mobility plan and the energy and environmental transition, in line with three key priorities for the Bordeaux pilot site:

  • Modal transition via park-and-ride facilities and the promotion of car-sharing,
  • Support for active modes of transport (pedestrians and cyclists) and ensuring their safety in public spaces,
  • Management of special events – information on flooded roads during estuarine flooding..

The national infrastructure framework makes it easier to connect the networks managed by different operators, thereby ensuring continuity of service between local roads, ring roads and inter-city routes within an urban hub in the Atlantic Arc.

DIT4TraM [2021-2024] – The Gertrude traffic light control system has, in particular, introduced priority phases exclusively for trams and for the main bus routes, resulting in significant reductions in journey times. The DIT4TraM project (‘Distributed Intelligence and Technology for Traffic and Mobility Management’)  has made it possible to test, in a real-world setting, the use of C-ITS services to expand multimodal traffic management: dynamic remote triggering of a ‘bicycle’ phase request (‘virtual push button’); decentralised demand management at intersections, resulting in an average reduction in stops or waiting times at a major intersection on the express bicycle network.

SCALE [2024-2028] – Within the SCALE project (Strengthening C-ITS Adoption and Lining up across Europe), the South-West pilot site aims to improve urban and suburban mobility, with a particular focus on integrating regional public transport. The objective is to make public transport even more efficient and accessible, while reducing congestion and improving safety in city centres and outlying areas. This project also supports the implementation of the recently revised European ITS Directive.

Find out more about the projects:

Generic contacts - services

InDID@bordeaux-metropole.fr