National Harbor, MD – ITS America Annual Meeting – May 21, 2012 – INRIX today introduced the industry’s first Real-Time Traffic Data Quality Assurance Program at the 2012 ITS America Annual Meeting. The program will embed data validation in INRIX’s data license contracts, with experienced independent validators using proven and well documented methods established and used by the I-95 Corridor Coalition over the past four years. The number of validation tests included at no additional cost will scale depending upon the size of the roadway network and the length of the contract – the larger the network, the longer the contract, the higher frequency of validation tests. The program, in partnership with Bluetooth traffic monitoring firm Traffax, applies to limited access networks in all countries and regions in which INRIX provides real-time traffic data.
“Data accuracy is critical to our government customers,” said Rick Schuman, Vice President and General Manager of Public Sector, INRIX. “At the same time, it is difficult and costly to establish an independent testing regime – leaving many customers to assess quality anecdotally, a priori, or not at all. We want our customers to be assured in a scientific way that our data meets their quality needs – throughout the life of a contract. With the I-95 Corridor Coalition, we were the first in the industry to accept contract terms linking payment directly to data quality. Today, we are expanding this same offer to all government agencies worldwide where we operate.”
In the I-95 Corridor Coalition’s Vehicle Probe Project (VPP), INRIX has been and continues to be subjected to the most extensive and longest continuously running independent quality validation of private sector traffic data in the world. Since July 2008, the University of Maryland has continued to monitor freeway data quality using portable Bluetooth readers provided by Traffax and has set the standard for quality control for outsourced traffic data. The validation has analyzed numerous facilities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, under a wide variety of operating conditions including light to severe congestion, holidays, snow storms, overnight work zones, all seasons, daytime and nighttime, weekdays and weekends. To date, data has been collected and published on a nearly monthly basis at 35 test sites in 8 states, producing a total of more than 41,000 hours of ground truth data across more than 750 miles. Data is accurate on average to 2 MPH in all conditions and 5 MPH in congested conditions, well within the project’s accuracy requirements. All methods used, data and analysis are made available to the transportation community for review on the Coalition’s VPP web site.
INRIX is paid in the VPP based on its data quality as determined in the validation process, with the methodology posted on the VPP web site. If data quality falls out of tolerance in the most recent tests, INRIX will receive a reduced fee. If quality problems were severe – worse than 15MPH error rates for instance – INRIX could even feasibly receive no monthly payment unless/until data quality improves. Further, the process is designed to reward/penalize data quality in congested conditions, with 50% of INRIX’s monthly payment tied to the quality of data when ground truth speeds are 45 MPH or less. To date, overall nearly 4 years of the project, INRIX has not had a single quality deduction.
INRIX is now partnering with Traffax to offer to its other public sector customers the same quality and performance regime. INRIX will contract with Traffax, but all testing will be conducted independently as with the VPP, and results made available to the agency customer.
For more information, visit INRIX at ITSA booth #729 or contact busdev@inrix.com.
About Traffax
Traffax Inc. leads the industry in Bluetooth traffic monitoring equipment and applications, with well over half a million hours of roadside monitoring with its BluFax devices. The company was founded
by a team of transportation and information technology professionals to commercialize the seminal Bluetooth detection technology developed at the University of Maryland, and continues to lead the industry in the development of solutions to solve real-world problems in the traffic operations and transportation planning space. BluFAX devices have been used in most US states and internationally both to provide data in real-time to support operations applications, and for post-processed engineering and planning analysis, providing critical information to improve decision making for owners and operators of transportation networks. For additional information, contact 800-767-7480 or traffax@traffaxinc.com
