The paper presents results of a project developing standards for information formatting and supply as part of a new generation of Urban Traffic Management and Control Systems (UTMC). The paper summarises the possible uses and users of information from a UTMC system. It also shows how the standards can support these. The paper shows how the project focused on identifying the current and future needs of users, both in the public and private sectors. This led to a set of information types that need to be supported by UTMC, and the development of a data dictionary to define the information. Other areas detailed include: the economic benefits of increased information availability; reducing data communication costs by filtering and pre-processing information; ensuring any future markets for the sale of traffic information are supported; supporting emerging technology such as RDS-TMC; addressing ownership and control of information supplied by a UTMC system; and compatibility with existing and developing standards. The paper concludes by presenting a vision of a future UTMC system as the core of a `traffic information super-highway', supporting a range of public and private sector systems and services.
Abstract