Skip to main content

Independent tests reveal floating car data is ‘as accurate as road sensors’

An independent quality test by the German State of Bavaria’s Centre for Traffic Management (ZVM) has found that floating car data (FCD) from INRIX is ‘just as good’ as the information from road sensors. The results indicate that the traffic authority can provide enhanced traffic information to citizens without the expense and time-consuming process of maintaining and installing additional road sensors. ZVM selected Inrix to provide data and insights to reduce congestion across the state and commissioned
October 12, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
An independent quality test by the German State of Bavaria’s Centre for Traffic Management (ZVM) has found that floating car data (FCD) from 163 INRIX is ‘just as good’ as the information from road sensors. The results indicate that the traffic authority can provide enhanced traffic information to citizens without the expense and time-consuming process of maintaining and installing additional road sensors.

ZVM selected Inrix to provide data and insights to reduce congestion across the state and commissioned this performance study as part of its quality management review of the data.

ZVM already uses a large network of road sensors for traffic management and information purposes, but wanted to improve the quality of real-time data provided to drivers, particularly for secondary roads where road sensors are installed at distances of up to 100km, creating blind spots in coverage.

The TraffiCon consultancy evaluated the real-time and historic data on behalf of ZVM; the analysis revealed that Inrix was able to provide accurate real-time traffic information up to 98 per cent of the time on roads such as the A3, A8 and A9, the most congested motorways in Bavaria. The test found that FCD could be used to fill in the ‘blind spots’ between road sensors on secondary roads to enhance traffic information. Drivers in Bavaria can access Inrix traffic data through the BayernInfo website, which also features as both Android and iOS smartphone apps for real-time updates on road conditions.

Access to Inrix XD Traffic, which delivers real-time information on traffic speeds and travel times from five million miles of roads in 42 countries, provides ZVM with an insight into traffic conditions on Bavarian roads at any given time. XD Traffic improves accuracy and offers detailed real-time traffic information for every 100 metres on every major road type and class, resulting in the best insight for transportation agencies and urban planners for improving a city’s road network performance.

TraffiCon CEO, Dr Stefan Krampe, said: “As Inrix’s floating car data was found to be just as accurate as the information derived from road sensors, it is clear that Inrix can deliver high quality, real-time information to transport authorities to help them better monitor and manage traffic. Through partnering with Inrix, ZVM now has a more comprehensive picture of traffic across their road network and is able to provide more accurate updates to drivers.”

Scott Sedlik, general manager EMEA at Inrix, said: “Providing high quality, real-time traffic information through physical infrastructure, such as road sensors, can be costly and doesn’t always provide the broadest coverage and highest accuracy. By using floating car data, ZVM is able to extend its existing investments to reduce congestion and improve journeys for drivers, saving them time, money and frustration.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The benefits of Lidar
    March 21, 2022

    While Lidar is gaining ground in the ITS industry, it has not yet reached the level of mass adoption where it shows up frequently in requests for proposals (RFPs) from cities and DoTs.

  • Caltrans trials Xerox’s Passenger Detection System
    October 30, 2015
    Xerox’s Passenger Detection System has been trialled in California and compared with the state’s team of human counters giving some interesting results, as Colin Sowman discovers. Like others adopting high-occupancy and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes for congestion management, Caltrans has faced challenges with compliance in what has been effectively an ‘honour system’ with drivers trusted to set their tags correctly or comply with the multi-passenger requirement.
  • Jenoptik supplies sophisticated multi-section control project
    November 17, 2014
    Efficient speed enforcement in the most highly frequented tunnel in Austria on the A7 near Linz. The Bindermichl-Niedernhart tunnel complex on Austrian highway A7 connects the major east/west A1 route from Vienna/ Bratislava to Munich/Salzburg with the A7/ E55 running south from Prague in the Czech Republic. This happens right in the middle of the city of Linz, Austria.
  • Flir smart traffic management in Darmstadt
    October 20, 2015
    Part of a larger urban zone, the city of Darmstadt near Frankfurt, Germany, does not escape the problems of traffic congestion. In a bid to improve the situation, the city’s traffic authorities have installed more than 200 video detectors from Flir Systems, along with Flir’s video management system, Flux, which monitors the traffic streams coming from a wide variety of cameras. The city is also using various types of video sensors for vehicle, pedestrian and cycle detection, all of which are used to con