GPS Tracking ROI

Who among us hasn’t seen a set of routing instructions from some GPS or mapping provider that hasn’t made us scratch our heads? “These guys are dumb” is a usual thought. “I wouldn’t go that way, I’ll hit way too much traffic” is a common fault. it’s one programming task to take a network of roads and write an algorithm to “build” a route from one point to another using the available network. Typically the programmer uses the existing speed limits on the known roads to calculate the time to travel by alternative paths and selects the one with the least time “cost”. But traffic, depending heavily upon time and day of the week doesn’t travel at the posted speed. We all know that … in fact travel at the posted speed is the exception that proves the rule. Sometimes traffic moves significantly faster. other time, of course, the times we remember, it slows down “big time”. How on earth can a programmer take that into consideration?

A company called Inrix has an interesting aid to this non-trivial task. I’ve written several times before … see here and here … about these folks. they aren’t the only company doing this, but they are certainly technically innovative and by far the best marketers … and sometimes that’s what makes the difference. How do they do it?

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Tele Atlas today announced the availability of Tele Atlas Historical Traffic Speeds, which utilizes, aggregates and enhances billions of historical data points from real-time GPS probe and numerous other traffic resources to help provide accurate average speeds on individual road segments in the United States. …

“By enhancing Tele Atlas’ current traffic solutions with Tele Atlas Historical Traffic Speeds, our partners will be able to further develop optimized routing capabilities for an array of enterprise and consumer navigation devices and products,” said Jerry Kim, director of global dynamic content, Tele Atlas. “Whether a driver from an enterprise fleet needs an accurate estimation of travel time for a specific route, or a parent wants the best route to their child’s soccer game on a busy Friday afternoon, end users can leverage this content for a more robust, efficient navigation experience.” … Full Historic Traffic Speed release here:

 I love it when a plan comes together Oops, better strike that out, every time Hannibal said that things always blew up, didn’t they?  But kidding aside, this is a good plan and a great idea.  I’ve mentioned it here several times as well, if you are interested in things you could actually put GPS to use for, aside from catching your employees snoozing under a shade tree, you can read more in the archives.

Since I was a boy I have been fascinated by the “driving time” charts in map resources like the Rand-McNally road atlases … putting together trips in my imagination (and, thankfully) giving myself a life-long thirst for geographical knowledge.  Give my little nephew Sami a toy, he’s happy, give me a map, any map, and I am just as easily amused.

I always wondered how they estimated all those driving times.  And, of course, as maps came on line and driving directions and time estimates became more common I noticed huge variations in estimates. 

Now we have an intelligent tool to take all the historical data that’s being collected, hour by hour, day by day, and put it to use for all.  Tip of the hat to Tele Atlas for putting GPS to a good use.

Several times in the recent past I’ve mentioned the use of anonymous GPS Tracking data from highway vehicles to use as inputs to Intelligent Transportation Services (ITS) and other technology systems to aid the calculation and display of traffic flows. There are a number of methods used to measure traffic flow parameters and GPS Tracking is just coming into its own in this field.

Most systems rely on the classic inductive pavement loop sensors that operate like the illustration here. You’ve seen these thousands and thousands of times, perhaps without realizing it because they are used all over the world to control intelligent traffic light systems. As you roll up to your next red light, look down at the pavement as you come up to the “stop line” painted on the road surface. You can often see that the road has been slit and then filled in with some kind of sealant in a rectangular pattern. That’s the most common installation method for these sensors. Commonly they have only been used to tell the computer that controls the timing of the traffic signal about vehicles waiting in the lane for a green light. But they can also be aggregated into a traffic information system and give a world of information to traffic managers, planners and real-time controllers.

Like almost everything involving technology they have their pluses and minuses: (more…)