Road transport informatics (RTI) as an application of mobile data

A current CEC assisted research programme DRIVE (dedicated road infrastructure for vehicle safety in Europe) is investigating methods of reducing congestion, death, injury, and pollution on European roads. The aim is to make more efficient use of existing roads, as opposed to constructing extra roads, as has previously been the approach to road congestion. A major part of such a program will involve the collection and distribution of Road Transport Informatics (RTI) data. British Telecom is the prime contractor in DRIVE project CIDER (communications infrastructure for drive on European roads) which is examining the communications requirements of RTI applications. The emerging RES 6 pan-European Mobile Digital Trunked Radio System (MDTRS) standard is particularly suitable for the collection and distribution of RTI data. This is because it allows connectionless packet data, and broadcast capabilities on a pan-European scale. The authors discuss the applications of RTI and the information required per congested link. The authors then describe RES6 MDTRS services and facilities