Student builds traffic congestion index for 27 Algerian cities

Takieddine Rehail, a third-year student in Béjaïa, has built a platform that tracks traffic jams in 27 Algerian cities using Google Maps data.

TSA reported that the platform is called Algerian Urban Congestion Index. It measures and analyses road congestion without physical sensors, using traffic data available on Google Maps.

The 27 urban areas include the cities of Algiers, Oran and Constantine.

Rehail is a student at the Higher School of Computer Science and Digital Technology (ESTIN) in Béjaïa, where he is in the third year of the second cycle (3CS). The project was developed with the LITAN laboratory, under the guidance of Faïcal Azouaou, a professor at ESTIN and Rehail's mentor.

In May, Azouaou proposed a summer internship for his students. Its aim was to design a congestion index for Algerian cities.

Nesrine Mitouche, communications officer at ESTIN, said the internship aimed to build the first prototype of a congestion index for the Algerian context. The work used data from a mapping interface or from the processing of Google Maps traffic images.

The platform gives real-time information on traffic congestion levels in 27 Algerian cities. The sources do not say whether this real-time information is open to the public.

Data of this kind can be used directly by local authorities, urban planners and transport engineers to tackle mobility problems. It shows slowdowns, congested areas and changes in traffic through the day.

"The platform created allows, in particular, comparing congestion levels between cities and observing how they change through the day," said Nesrine Mitouche, communications officer at ESTIN.