Travel Time Measurements using GSM and GPS Probe Data

The paper outlines the basic technological background, coverage and the system design of TomTom’s traffic information and navigation service which is already available in a number of European countries as the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, France and Switzerland under the HD Traffic™ brand name. Together with the IQ Routes ™ technology TomTom’s real time traffic information service is the backbone of the time-dynamic navigation concept which guaranties reliable routing and precise travel time information. The content provisioning is based on GPS probe and GSM probe collection systems resulting in a reliable historic and real time link speed measurement assignment for the underlying road network graph of the navigation system, finally leading to a greatly improved navigation experience. Details of the data collection system are described in the paper as well. Furthermore the concept of historic speed profile generation (IQ Routes ™ Technology) and data fusion for a real time traffic information service are outlined. The contribution of each data source of the collection system and results will be published as well. In the final part of the paper related follow-up applications such as traffic demand analysis out of the probe collection system are briefly mentioned.