It is recognised that a central concern of DRIVE will relate to the management and cross referencing of the vast amount of data required for all but the most basic DRIVE technology. Project RIMES has set out to reconcile the already large (but disparate) investment of road administrations in Europe in the domain of road information and management database systems with the aims of DRIVE. The first stage of RIMES saw the completion of an in-depth survey of the current situation within Europe as far as public administrations and RTI are concerned. A picture emerged of a non-uniform spread of activity, heavy investment , similar long term objectives, but little in common as far as the technical-database side is concerned. What is abundantly clear however is that the Road Administration sector within Europe can and should contribute to DRIVE. Following the survey a complete data analysis opened the way to the design of a conceptual data model which has been validated against different Public Administration RDBs. During the same period an evaluation of road network referencing requirements revealed then the emerging GDF standard would be unlikely to fully accommodate all the perceived needs of Public Administrations. The proposed solution is the design of a Road Administration Data Exchange Format (RADEF) standard - a standard which would be as close as possible to GDF but extended to incorporate the special requirements of Public Administrations. The combination of RADEF and GDF together would provide the gateway for information to be exchanged between both the data bases of Road Administrations and those of other DRIVE projects and thus add immeasurably to the contribution and therefore value of the Road Administration databases within an Integrated Road Transport Environment.
Abstract