After finishing various RDS/TMC (Radio Data System - Traffic Message Channel) field trials in Europe, implementation plans for RDS/TMC are being made in various countries. Public traffic authorities and the European Commission play important roles in design and deployment of these plans. Manufacturers of RDS/TMC receivers need for their business automatic collected and preprocessed traffic data, RDS/TMC services 24 hours a day with the right quality level and a large coverage area and the availability of maintained TMC location databases and TMC chip cards. However, the first RDS/TMC receivers for the market were introduced at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA), the consumer electronics exhibition in Berlin in 9/97, when the RDS/TMC service in Germany was started. Because of the interdependence from sales of RDS/TMC receivers, implementation of automatic traffic data collection, availability of RDS/TMC services and infrastructure for RDS/TMC broadcasting, it will lead to a step-by-step introduction of RDS/TMC in Europe. In any case all other Road Transport Telematics Services have to deal with a similar interdependence, so RDS/TMC will be a first step in Road Transport Telematics in Europe.
Abstract