As part of the “Traffic Management and Telematics” course, three field trips were offered this semester. They gave students the opportunity to experience the course material in practice and to learn about various areas of application.
The first field trip took place at the Karlsruhe Civil Engineering Office. There, the city’s traffic computer and a traffic signal control box were presented, and their operation was explained.
During the field trip to the KVV, participants got a glimpse inside the control center. They also had the opportunity to try their hand at controlling a train.
The third field trip will take them to init, a provider of software solutions for public transportation. There, the students will gain insights into current developments in the field of autonomous driving as well as how a ticket vending machine works.

This year’s World Conference on Transport Research took place in Toulouse. Our institute was represented by eight contributions in the form of presentations and posters, allowing us to share our latest research findings with the international academic community.

🔹 Data-driven spatial identification of regions with high potential for demand-responsive (autonomous) public transport as a complement to existing services. Christian Klinkhardt, Sören Braner, Martin Kagerbauer und Peter Vortisch

🔹 Data-driven Reconstruction of Freeway Control Algorithms. Josephine Grau, Claude M. Weyland, Marvin V. Baumann und Peter Vortisch

🔹 From counts to patterns: large-scale analysis and extrapolation of bicycle volumes. Jan Vallée, Gabriel Wilkes, Stefanie Kern, Martin Kagerbauer und Peter Vortisch

🔹 Synthesizing firm populations in agent-based freight demand models using statistical learning techniques. Lukas Barthelmes, Robin Andre, Adrien Beziat, Kelly Clifton, Martin Kagerbauer und Peter Vortisch

🔹 Spatial distribution of economic status in synthetic populations. Lucas Schuhmacher, Gabriel Wilkes, Martin Kagerbauer und Peter Vortisch

🔹 Agent-based modeling of return drop-off trips. Emre Görgülü, Jelle Kübler, Lukas Barthelmes, Martin Kagerbauer und Peter Vortisch

🔹 Measuring spatial variability of multi-week destination choices. Tim Wörle und Peter Vortisch

🔹 Time, trip purpose and intermodality: understanding mode choice with autonomous ride-pooling services. Ann-Sophie Voss, Nadine Kostorz-Weiss, Martin Kagerbauer und Peter Vortisch

The exchange with researchers from around the world once again proved to be extremely enriching and offered numerous opportunities to make new contacts and reconnect with familiar faces.
In addition to the scientific program, the supplementary presentations as part of “Industrial Insights” and various field trips provided an exciting complement. For some participants, the tour of the Airbus production facilities was a special opportunity.

The BRAVE10K project (“Conditions for the Framework Tender, Implementation, Traffic Approval, and Introduction of More Than 10,000 Public Autonomous Vehicles”) kicked off on July 1 with a meeting of the consortium, consisting of approximately 20 partners from the fields of transportation, industry, digitalization, research, and standardization. The goal of the project is the nationwide, comprehensive introduction of autonomous vehicles in public transit. The first meeting of the project partners took place on July 1 and 2 at INIT in Karlsruhe, the company leading the project. The meeting focused on cross-project topics such as communication, stakeholder management, and risk management, as well as an initial exchange of ideas regarding the individual work packages. We are very pleased to contribute to this major initiative!

On this year’s Girls’ Day, the Institute for Transport Studies opened its doors and offered interested female students exciting insights into the world of transportation planning and engineering—in cooperation with the Institute of Highway and Railroad Engineering.
The varied program included several hands-on stations: In the road design section, the participants examined accident analyses and learned how to design safe roads. In the traffic engineering section, they conducted a traffic count, learned how traffic signal systems work, and viewed relevant simulations. Afterward, they had the opportunity to get hands-on in the road construction engineering section and create a Marshall test specimen to better understand the properties of asphalt.
Girls’ Day aims to inspire female students early on to pursue careers in fields where women have historically been underrepresented, and to provide them with practical insights and guidance for their future academic and career choices.

From April 14 to 16, 2026, Lucas Schuhmacher, Robin Andre, and Tim Wörle attended the 17th International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies (ANT) in Istanbul, Turkey. The conference provided an excellent platform for exchanging ideas on current research topics, particularly in the field of agent-based modeling in transportation.
As a special highlight Robin Andre, Pia Tulodetzki, and Peter Vortisch received the Best Paper Award for their paper titled “Fast and Scalable Population Synthesis Using Equivalence Classes and Hierarchical Distribution.” The following additional contributions were presented:

• Synchronizing Demand and Supply in Agent-Based Ride-Pooling Simulations: The mobiTopp–MATSim Live Coupling by Gabriel Wilkes, Robin Andre, Nico Kühnel, Martin Kagerbauer, and Peter Vortisch 
• Modeling Tour-Based Mode Choice in Agent-Based Travel Demand Models by Lucas Schuhmacher, Gabriel Wilkes, Martin Kagerbauer, and Peter Vortisch
• Modeling Leisure-related Agent-Place Relationships in Agent-based Travel Demand Models by Tim Wörle, Jan Ellmers, Jelle Kübler, Martin Kagerbauer, and Peter Vortisch

The conference papers will be published soon in the official proceedings. We would like to thank the organizers for hosting such a well-organized and inspiring event.

As part of the institute’s long-standing tradition, this year’s English seminar was once again held with a total of 22 participants from various transport research institutes across the German-speaking region (TU Berlin, TU Munich, TU Graz, University of Stuttgart, BOKU Vienna, ETH Zurich).

The aim of the seminar was to deepen participants’ understanding and linguistic proficiency in English, thereby further enhancing their ability to engage with the international scientific community. As in previous years, the seminar included the translation of scientific texts, the revision and stylistic improvement of participants’ own abstracts, subject-specific discussions, the preparation of paper reviews, and the delivery of presentations. These activities enabled participants to systematically develop both their written and spoken English skills within an academic context.

This year’s seminar took place in Schladming, Austria—a region renowned for its impressive alpine landscape and diverse winter sports opportunities. In addition to the intensive seminar program, the surroundings offered numerous opportunities for shared activities such as skiing and winter hiking. These contributed to continuing academic exchange beyond the formal sessions and further strengthening collaboration between institutions. Overall, the English seminar in Schladming once again proved to be a highly enriching experience for all participants.