Road authorities are increasingly looking at Floating Car Data (FCD) for overcoming the limitations of current methods of traffic monitoring. Vehicles themselves are used as on-road sensors and provide real-time information by transmitting their speed, position and direction of travel to a central database. The information can then be used to provide real-time traffic information to other road users. FCD is collected using global positioning systems (GPS) or cellular networks (mobile phones). The floating cellular data method does not require additional hardware to be installed, but the localisation of the vehicle using the FCD source is less accurate than GPS. FCD is currently being used in network monitoring, driver assistance, fleet management and intelligent road charging. One example of the use of FCD is the Beijing Urban Road Network Function Hierarchy Evaluation in China. The output of the project has been a GPS/GIS integrated methodology for urban road evaluation (GIME). European FCD projects are outlined: OPTIS in Sweden, Floating Cellular Data Trial in Belgium, Mediamobile in France, BMW XFXD in Germany and Road Traffic Monitoring by Satellite by European Space Agency.
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