New EU standards will boost real-time traffic information for applications like ISA
The European Commission has adopted new rules which will help provide road users across the EU with more accurate, accessible and up-to-date traffic information related to their journeys including data on static and dynamic speed limits.
The standardised digital information, which could also include expected delays, estimated travel times, information about accidents, road works and road closures, warnings about weather conditions and any other relevant information can be delivered through multiple channels such as variable message signs, radio traffic message channels and navigation devices.
To improve the usefulness of the data, the specifications require that road status and traffic data are made accessible via national access points in a standardised format which can be used for multiple applications. The specifications also establish rules and timings for data updates.
Standardised and regularly updated data are essential to applications such as Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) which relies on accurate information on current speed limits, though this can be supplemented by on-board cameras that can read road signs.
The specifications are classified as a ‘delegated regulation’, EU-speak for technical rules that do not have to go through the full EU legislative procedure. Following the green light from member states and the European Parliament, the standards should come into force by Spring 2017.