The development of telematics (or Intelligent Transport) in the field of traffic management enables to store more and more traffic data. However these data represent a mass of information which is difficult to process and interpret. This excess of information neither necessarily results in a real improvement of the knowledge of the traffic phenomena nor in an assessment of the networks performance nor in the design of new operation strategies. This paper presents the main characteristics of a new strategic tool of congestion analysis and assessment trying to deal with the three above mentioned points. This tool completes the real time functions of CLAIRE supervisory system through the development of a long term memory of congestion phenomena and of an aid to remedial actions planning. It is based on an approach called case based reasoning for the recognition of congestion scenarios and on the hypertext and hypermedia technologies for the consulting of the various reports produced by the observatory. The first results of its use by the council of Toulouse in the framework of CENTAUR European project and the results of a qualitative assessment led by ZELT among the operators are presented.
Abstract