The government of Finland has made a decision to establish a national road and street database (DIGIROAD) that will cover all vehicle accessible roads in the country. This network includes all public roads, city streets, rural roads, forest roads and private roads totalling approximately 550, 000 kilometres. DIGIROAD will contain information on the geometry, physical features and travel related characteristics of all roads and streets as well as the location of all freight terminals, major service areas and public transport facilities. DIGIROAD will facilitate development of navigation, route planning and traffic guidance services to travellers and road users, assist in the planning of maintenance operations and provide public authorities with a location and routing tool for accident and emergency management. This paper presents an overview of the system architecture of the Finnish DIGIROAD project and highlights some experiences that have been gained in establishing a comprehensive nationwide database for modern intelligent transportation systems (ITS) needs.
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