The City of Aalborg is the fourth largest city in Denmark with a population of 130,000. The Limfjord splits the city in two with the major part being on the southern side. Road traffic crosses the Limfjord via a road bridge in the centre of the city and a motorway tunnel to the east of the city.

The tunnel and the road bridge daily carry approximately 100,000 cars – 35,000 on the bridge and 65,000 through the tunnel. Data shows that the roads are usually capable of dealing with the traffic – vehicle average speed in morning peaks drops to around one third compared to free flow conditions at night on the bridge and by approximately 12% in the morning peak in the tunnel. However, incidents in and around the tunnel and bridge can cause unexpected infrastructure collapse and delays while routine maintenance is also necessary at times. Aalborg’s challenge is to filter and deliver the available data (see supporting documents) in an innovative way directly to road users so they can change their plans in the event of road blockage. In order to better distribute traffic on the available connections, the information needs to reach road users early enough to enable them to change their time of departure or change their route across the fjord without causing serious delays for other road users. Solutions would involve consideration of the following problems:

• How do we reach people with the information? The ideal is that people should not seek the information themselves but it should reach them before they depart.
• When do road users need the information to ensure a fair distribution of traffic to avoid network collapse?
• How to target the information? What is the right media?