How Traffic Information Systems help drivers

Here we will concentrate on the practical advantages which common driver can gain from implementation of one of very profitable ITS components - Traffic Information systems.
Basic purpose of these systems is obvious – it is beneficial if the drivers (or would-be drivers, before they sit to their cars and start their engines) have a comprehensive view of the local traffic density along their route, together with information on road enclosures or works, accidents, road surface state and other. This may enable them to select the best route, postpone their journey to a more suitable time, even to cancel it or switch to public transport. Even if none of these is possible, the drivers still benefit from being informed where they are likely to reach the destination and where they should drive cautiously.
There are multiple ways, how the driver cans receives the information. Each of them has some pros and cons; generally the most valuable is the information that is as current and as targeted as possible. Here is the overview of the most common ways to provide the information:

• Through special devices, particularly navigation devices providing turn-by-turn navigation
• Web page with traffic congestion map and with possibility of finding optimal route and traffic information corresponding to it
• Web pages optimized for mobile devices like PDAs and Smartphones
• SMS or MMS services, which – though sometimes considered as an old-fashioned – are useful for not requiring any sophisticated device but cellular phone
• Digital Information boards above roads.

Each of these options is useful and system that provides all or most of them is desirable; however the one listed first is clearly superior. The navigation devices, which are becoming popular and widely known, receive the traffic information through Radio Data Service – Traffic Message Channel (RDS-TMC) broadcasted jointly with FM radio broadcasting, or through GPRS. The driver sets his destination in one of available ways and the device finds the route and guides the driver by showing the way on screen and directs him/her in a human voice from one junction to the other. Besides that it informs the driver of all traffic events on the route, shows the distance to them and possible delays. If the driver considers these events worth avoiding, the most remarkable function has its turn - the driver may ask for an alternate route avoiding the event, for which the difference in time and distance is evaluated comparing the original one.
The next steps, which become actual lately, is not only to show the traffic level as it is at current moment, but to predict the development of the situation on basis of analysis of historical data. It is not difficult to imagine how useful such information may be not only for drivers, but – using long-time historical records – for decision making and planning of the road system as well as public transport.
For historical cities with medieval centers, where the only way of easing the traffic is preventing or discouraging some of the cars coming to the center (by fees and by-pass highways), the Traffic Information System is not only much helpful to the drivers who use it, but may also become beneficial to the traffic when enough drivers use it. Our experience e.g. from Prague, Czech Republic capital and a historic city of approximately same size as Dubai, where YMS Group implemented its yTraffic - Traffic Information System in 2004, is very positive. The system was appreciated by drivers and awarded a “Czech GeoApplication of the year” award, but its importance still grows as more and more drivers use modern navigation devices.
For modern fast growing cities like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Muscat and others, where traffic planning is not limited by narrow streets designed in centuries of motorless transport, the possible benefits of Traffic Information System is beyond compare. The Dalili service – another implementation of YMS Group´s yTraffic was launched in 2006 by Dubai RTA in cooperation with YMS Middle East and Intergraph ME – is now used by thousands of RDS-TMC enabled navigation device users, but that may be only a beginning. We are looking forward to a system that not only tells us what way to go, what are the obstructions and traffic intensity, but also what is the traffic likely to look like when we reach a particular area and when we will probably reach the destination based on these predictions. More than that, the system will help the authorities to plan road closures not to influence the traffic excessively, or to plan roads system development to relieve most congested places.

Michal Kurz
YMS Group