The Superpowers you need: Empowering Transportation's Everyday Heroes

At Umovity, October traditionally marks the unveiling of our latest software releases and technological innovations. This year, we’ve dedicated the Mobility Tech Update to our users, the ‘Guardians of Mobility’ - culminating in our keynote. This isn’t just a marketing slogan, but rather a celebration of our global user community and the critical role they play in shaping the future of mobility.

Today, as we face challenges like climate change, growing urbanization, and an increasing demand for transportation, the work of mobility professionals has never been more crucial. These individuals—planners, engineers, traffic controllers—work tirelessly and with passion to improve how we move across cities, regions and nations. They are the real-life superheroes of transportation.

What Does It Take to Be a Guardian of Mobility?

Being a Guardian of Mobility goes beyond simply working in the transportation industry. It means tackling real-world challenges head-on, ensuring every journey, whether by foot, bike, or vehicle, is as safe and efficient as possible. Just like superheroes combat their villains, Guardians of Mobility combat accidents, congestion, and inefficiencies. Their mission? To make mobility, cities, and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) smarter, safer and more sustainable.

But what are the essential "superpowers" needed to master these challenges? These are the categories we focused on in this year’s Mobility Tech Update:

Big Data and Analytics

Data forms the foundation of all superpowers in the mobility universe. Each day, vast amounts of data are generated in the mobility sector, and harnessing this data unlocks immense potential – from gaining insights into traffic patterns and mobility behaviors to simulating future scenarios and assessing the impact of mobility measures, predicting road conditions, and taking preventive action.

At Umovity, data drives our technological progress and our transportation models. For instance, PTV Group's Model2Go: Fed with essential data—routing maps, public transport data, and points of interest— Model2Go transforms manual efforts for transport model building into a high-speed, fully automated system, ramping up efficiency, and saving time.  Our mobility data platform, PTV Access, helps users understand mobility trends and identify gaps to ensure equal access to vital destinations for all citizens.

Through these tools, we aim to empower transportation professionals to convert analyzed potential into measurable results.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The superpower of data is magnified when combined with advanced AI and machine learning technologies. At Umovity, we harness this combination in key areas: understanding past events and patterns, analyzing large volumes of data for real-time insights, and using predictive models to forecast future outcomes with confidence. Finally, we implement these insights through guidance, decision support, and automation.

This year’s Tech Update brings all these elements together. One key example is our new AI-based support tool Companion, integrated into the latest versions of PTV Visum, Vissim, and Vistro.  AI also powers two key additions to our ATMS offering: by integrating PTV Flows with Econolite‘s Centracs Mobility, we enhance visibility and situational awareness for Traffic Management.

Digital Twins, Modeling & Prediction

What would a Guardian of Mobility be without the ability to foresee the future? In our Tech Suite, PTV Visum and PTV Vissim serve as essential superpowers, allowing users to explore various scenarios within a digital twin environment. These tools empower decision-makers to navigate and shape the future they envision. Our development teams invest significant energy into refining these pivotal solutions.

One of Visum's most powerful new features is Activity-Based Modeling (ABM). High-resolution modeling of transportation demand is essential for evaluating complex phenomena like active modes, or mobility-on-demand. With the latest extensions, the model can now reflect decisions about the timing of activities and trips, for example to assess effects of time-dependent tolls. Another example is the Centracs Mobility-Flows integration: It leverages advanced AI and Floating Car Data to provide predictions of traffic conditions up to an hour in advance allowing agencies to mitigate congestion and safety risks before they occur.

Holistic Network Management

A key trait of the Guardians of Mobility is their holistic view. For sustainable, future-ready transportation, integrated systems that address not only all modes of transport but also the diverse needs of people are essential. This is where our vision of Dynamic Multimodal Network Management comes into play. In this year’s Tech Update, we present a comprehensive management and decision-support system that empowers cities and organizations to seamlessly organize mobility across all transportation modes. A significant step toward this vision is the introduction of PTV Hub in the Mobility Tech Update—an industry-first cloud collaboration platform for modeling and simulation. PTV Hub integrates desktop licenses for Visum, Vissim, Viswalk, and Vistro, offering features to manage projects, licenses, and models in the cloud, all within one unified environment.

Smart Infrastructure

Another force empowering transportation superheroes is the growing intelligence and connectivity of infrastructure. Smart ITS systems provide real-time awareness of all movements in the city, enabling more efficient and safer traffic management. Cutting-edge technologies like Econolite’s EVO RADAR push the boundaries by delivering data-rich situational awareness and trajectory information, critical for a range of advanced ITS applications. This year, we've enhanced EVO RADAR with innovative features, including an advanced motion filter that detects and removes persistent objects in presence zones based on motion direction, further refining traffic operations.

For the Mobility Tech Update, we also made significant upgrades to EOS, our intuitive and powerful controller software, with enhanced support for Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs). These updates offer higher levels of functionality and configurability for Signal Phase and Timing applications. We’ve also added features like local adaptive split optimization and specialized preemption enhancements to improve the coordination between traffic signals and railroad crossing operations, ensuring efficient traffic flow and greater safety for all road users.

To complete the portfolio of powerful tools, Econolite's traffic control cabinets provide the industry’s widest variety of cabinet options with the quickest delivery times. Built tough and reliable, they ensure safe and efficient operations across cities for generations.

Sustainable Urban Design

Superheroes fight for a better world, and transportation professionals use their powers to make mobility more sustainable and accessible. Our tools reflect this commitment to a greener future. For example, PTV Visum now includes new capabilities for emissions calculations based on the COPERT methodology, providing a more accurate assessment of environmental impact. Additionally, PTV Optima 2025 equips traffic operators with advanced air quality monitoring tools, enabling them to combat climate change.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

As you've seen, the Guardians of Mobility wield tremendous power, and with that power comes great responsibility. At Umovity, we take this responsibility very seriously. As the global tech leader in mobility software and hardware, we recognize our role in equipping these professionals with the best possible tools. Our mission is clear: to provide our customers—the Guardians of Mobility—with the superpowers they need to master their mobility challenges.

For further details, watch the full keynote here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvz1vHiWg1k&t=1015s