Vienna, Austria – ITS World Congress – October 23, 2012– INRIX announced at the 19TH World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) it has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract by Network Information Services Ltd (NIS) in England to provide real-time traffic speed and travel time information for the Highways Agency’s National Traffic Information Service (NTIS).
As the information hub for the Strategic Road Network (SRN), the NTIS is the backbone of the English road network consisting of 4,300 miles of motorways and major A-roads carrying one-third of all traffic and two-thirds of all freight nationwide. In addition to processing all Highways Agency traffic sensor data used in daily operations for the duration of the contract, INRIX and NIS are also tialling the integration of all road sensor data in combination with real-time Floating Vehicle Data (FVD) collected from across the country’s strategic highway network.
“The NTIS is truly a worldwide showcase demonstrating how the public and private sectors working together can deliver improved services at lower cost to taxpayers,” said Bryan Mistele, President and CEO, INRIX. “INRIX provides transportation agencies with a model for how to cost-effectively improve daily operations to better serve the people and businesses depending on it.”
The NTIS contract, awarded by the Highways Agency last year, replaces the traffic data processing and publication elements of the Birmingham, UK-based National Traffic Control Centre, with the goal of providing improved services at reduced cost. INRIX furthers these efforts in several ways:
• Better Traffic Information and Traveler Services: While much of the SRN has road sensors, the spacing of those sensors varies – often at great distances –making it difficult to see the exact location of where queues begin and end. By analyzing sensors in combination with FVD during a 12 month trial, INRIX provides consistent and precise junction to junction information across the entire SRN, helping pinpoint queues and their impacts for drivers and traffic operations staff faster than sensors alone.
The new “beta” map on the Highways Agency web site (https://www.highways.gov.uk/traffic) showcases this in operation.
• Increased reliability, faster processing: INRIX is implementing next-generation high speed data processing specifically for the NTIS, ensuring that data gets from the road/vehicle to the National Transportation Operations Center operators and end users in less than a minute. The NTIS will also benefit from INRIX’s resilient architecture which offers improved reliability of the data stream.
• Wider coverage: In this trial, INRIX also will provide FVD services for areas of the SRN where sensor data is not available helping NTIS operators see and understand potential traffic-impacting events on roads connecting with the SRN.
• New services: Throughout the trial, INRIX also will test for NTIS a process for combining sensor and FVD data in a way that allows for next generation traffic data services such as “return to normal” that predicts the amount of time it takes to restore typical travel conditions following a major crash or other incident.
About NTIS
The National Traffic Information Service (NTIS) is the information hub of the English strategic road network. It is operated by Network Information Services Ltd., a 50/50 joint venture between Mouchel and Thales UK, under contract to the English Highways Agency, an Executive Agency of the UK Government. The service is based in Birmingham and is responsible for providing accurate, historical, real-time and predictive traffic information to businesses, the traveling public and Highways Agency operations. It collects and disseminates information to the public using 2,500 roadside variable-message signs, digital information screens at key locations, websites, apps and social media, and the telephone based Highways Agency Information Line (HAIL) as well as distributing information to the media and business through a number of data feeds.
