Great navigation with yTraffic

When the Dubai Road and Transport Authority (RTA) implemented the yTraffic - Dynamic Integrated Navigation System in March 2006, few would have predicted how useful the new solution would be appreciated by motorist and traffic authorities in the Emirate.

Today, three years down the line, this advanced online traffic system has been appreciated not only for its solution of typical navigation tasks, but also that it is intended to be a benefit for motorists in Dubai in times of traffic jams. In addition, the solution has been helping motorists for alternate routing and for realtime estimation of travel times.

The RTA as a government organisation responsible for managing, planning, designing, construction, and controlling of roads systems, it is crucial that its IT infrastructure and related facilities are in an optimum operational state. In addition to managing, planning, servicing and controlling of traffic systems, the RTA is also responsible for building a traffic culture and awareness that is responsive to modern day driving offering motorists pleasurable experiences on the road.

Problem

Prior to partnering with the YMS Group is a manufacturer of IT road traffic management solutions, the Dubai RTA experienced problems in its traffic monitoring centre as it did not have advanced traffic information system resulting in difficulties to warn and inform drivers in advance online of the traffic situation status in the city. The RTA was also faced with the challenge of how would publish dynamic data about traffic jams and provide alternative less congested routes to motorists.

The yTraffic solution from YMS Group was chosen for building the Dalili (My Guide) traffic management solution or Dynamic Integrated Navigation System (DINS) -  a system the RTA says was implemented to improve traffic problems during peak hours and to benefit users by providing alternate routes.

With the introduction of Dalili, Dubai´s traffic has gained a potential to become more organised, says the RTA. The system has been designed to help drivers avoid congested roads at peak hours and enable them to find the fastest routes that offer turn-by-turn direction to their final destination.

Prior to implementing this project, Dubai had been using the advanced SCOOT system for controlling traffic signals on junctions since 1996. The SCOOT system is equipped with traffic detection sensors on all junctions controlled by traffic signals. Information collected by these sensors from these signals is centrally processed in the RTA´s Traffic Control Centre, which has been beneficial to building the new Intelligent Traffic System (ITS).

Following the implementation of the Dalili initiative motorists in the Emirate can now perform the following:

• Use an in-car navigation system for turn-by-turn directions together with real-time traffic updates.
• Check the current status of traffic intensity via Internet using a mobile device or PC and obtain alternate route suggestions.
• Perform trip planning on a mobile device or desktop PC utilising real-time traffic information.

The solution

Dalilias a project utilises a full set of yTraffic modules from YMS Group (except for SMS/MMS service) together with specialised interfaces.

Data from SCOOT and other sensors are gathered from a central managed ITS database conforming to the de facto standard UTMC 10. This data is then pre-processed, interpreted and passed on individual sub-systems RDS-TMC, Routing, Web and other presentation applications and interfaces.

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A comfortable data editor with graphical interface and map visualisation is provided for manual entering the information gained from surveillance cameras and external sources.

One advantage that the system offers is the fundamental functionality which represents broadcasting of the traffic information using the RDS-TMC channel. Any car with an RDS-TMC enabled built-in navigation system can receive this information when provided with a CD with the original Traffic Messaging Channel (TMC) tables.

The information is visible on the device screen of the car as an icon informing of any incident, accident or a traffic jam along a chosen route by the motorist.

The selected or en-route message detail can be read on screen, offering the driver an alternate route that is faster and/or avoids accidents, road closures or other traffic problems along that chosen route. Sets comprising VDO navigation devices and prepared data CDs that can be installed in any car has also been introduced to the market.

Furthermore, the requirement for an inexpensive lightweight option was also met by development of navigation software for PDA devices providing full turn-by-turn navigation utilising real-time traffic information delivered over GPRS.

For drivers without an appropriate navigation device wishing to utilise the traffic information for planning their routes, a specialised Web portal is available. It displays traffic information on Web, visualising congestion levels with colours.
In addition, Web users can look out points of interest in an extensive database, find their routes and check the traffic information on them, find alternate, less congested routes using current traffic information and print detailed driving directions.

The Web page is widely customisable and the users can store their personal points of interest as well as find routes for future use.

The systems has also been developed for users with Web or WAP-enabled mobile devices such as PDAs and mobile phones, a special version of the Web page optimised for limited size screen.

With the latest progress and spread of lightweight portable all-in-one navigation devices, many of which are RDS-TMC enabled, these devices become convenient and an inexpensive option of using Dalili and the number of users utilising these devices considerably exceeds those of originally introduced devices.

Software

With such a complex ever growing road network, it was vital that the RTA comes up with a comprehensive business software application suite that would help it manage all its systems in an efficient manner.

The RTA´s system has been designed in such a way that it picks up valuable information from sensors embedded at over 200 junctions across the city, as well as several additional strategic sensors. The system is supported with surveillance cameras too.

The Dalili map covers the whole UAE, while the traffic information covers Dubai only.
In terms of the business applications and technologies, the RTA has Oracle RDBMS, GeoMedia/Intergraph IntelliWhere Location Server, Traffic Information Centre (TIC) from GEWI, Germany, .NET, XML, MS IIS and RDS.

On the client side, RDS-TMC enabled navigation system is needed for full utilisation of Dalili. Web applications can be accessed with any Internet-enabled mobile device supporting HTML or WAP or from a PC with Java enabled Internet browser.

The yTraffic system has been broadcasting traffic data on RDS-TMC channel for 4 years and is being used by thousands of users in Dubai. The dynamic navigation is provided only by the RTA and is not available with any other navigation systems provider in the UAE.

Benefits

The RTA´s implementation of the yTraffic solution has brought the ability to easily select a route in accordance with traffic information and updates available in real time.
As the number of users increases, the system has become beneficial to all motorists, even those who do not directly use it, because it diverts part of the traffic out of the most problematic junctions in Dubai.

Original article was published at Computer News ME.