Traffic information highway

The UK Government´s White Paper on the future of transport published in July 1998 provided a new policy framework for the Highways Agency (HA), defining its main role in the future as a network operator rather than a road builder. The shift in policy comes at a time when forecasts predict that traffic could almost double by the year 2025 and the resources and space available to build and improve roads are limited. As a network operator, the Agency is tasked with “making better use of the roads we already have”. One way of achieving this objective is to provide the road user with better information so that informed travel choices can be made. The paper describes the HA´s strategy for improving the availability of interurban traffic information and in particular the development of the Traffic Information Highway for the exchange of information between travel network operators and information service suppliers