basque government uses tomtom data to improve traffic flow

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Client:

Basque Government’s traffic Department

Donostia-San Sebastián, 1

01010 Vitoria, Spain

CASE STUDY

Basque Government uses TomTom data to improve traffic flow

TomTom Case Study

The Basque Government’s traffic centre is now using GPS data from

TomTom to improve its service provision. They’re also getting information

from TomTom’s Custom Travel Time via the user-friendly online portal,

Traffic Stats, which can be used for in-depth analyses of specific routes

and locations. The Basque government can then use these reports to

improve the traffic management on its road network.

The Basque Traffic Centre has also recently started using real-time traffic

data from TomTom, which can be used in conjunction with the data

collected from roadside measurement stations, helping them avoid

investment in extra measurements stations, which are expensive to install

and maintain.

The Traffic Centre can use the real-time data to publish up-to-date traffic

information on online road maps, aiding road users to avoid traffic jams

and therefore money, time and fuel. Added benefit of fewer traffic jams

are improved traffic safety and air quality.

Basque Government’s traffic centre

SUMMARY

Country: Spain

Sector: Government

PROFILE

The Basque government’s traffic

centre collects traffic information

for the region between North

West and Central Spain, where

the road network is very busy.

The traffic centre helps the

authorities limit traffic jams and

provide a good service to road

users.



CHALLENGE

Basque government services are being forced to save

money, managing the traffic centre has to continue to

provide the same service but with a smaller budget. The

challenges are considerable: reducing traffic jams will

help the traffic centre raise the quality of life for people

in the region by improving road safety and limiting CO2

emissions.

SOLUTION

The classic measurement stations work perfectly well

already, but they do not provide information for areas

between the roadside cameras. Instead of investing in

extra cameras, which would be very expensive, the Basque

Traffic Centre has opted to use data collected by TomTom

from its GPS network. This budget-friendly solution gives

them much more information, with both historical and

real-time route data.

BENEFITS

• No investment in installation and maintenance of extra

measurement stations

• Roads users save time and fuel thanks to a reduction in

traffic jams

• Lower CO2-emissions and improved traffic safety

• User-friendly technology

• Reliable data

„The TomTom data

also lets us know

what is happening

in between our

measurement

stations.”

Iñaki Eguiara, head of the Basque Government’s traffic research area



The Basque government was already using TomTom’s historical traffic data: traffic centre

employees retrieve TomTom’s Custom Travel Time from the user-friendly online portal,

Traffic Stats, to analyse the flow of traffic on certain routes, and produce reports, make

plans and offer advice. The new real-time traffic data provides further details of the live

traffic situation. This information can be used to intervene quickly and efficiently when and

where necessary.

“We were already collecting real-time data from certain places on the roads,” explains Iñaki

Eguiara, head of the Basque government’s traffic research centre. “We save this information

in a database to build up a historical picture, and this works very well, but we also wanted

access to more data so we could produce even better reports for more roads.”

Data from measurement stations combined with TomTom information

There is always a distance of five to ten kilometres between each two stations, which all

consist of a digital display panel for providing information to road users, a camera, and

the measurement system itself which collects the data.

Iñaki Eguiara says that measurements stations would

ideally be placed everywhere along the roads, even

closer together. “But that’s impossible to implement

and very expensive,” he says. “The systems also need to

be maintained once they’ve been installed, which costs even more money. That’s why we

decided to combine the existing systems with the data from TomTom. The GPS information

doesn’t cover all the vehicles on the road, but it certainly provides a broader and more

accurate picture. It also lets us know what is happening in between measurement stations

– how many vehicles are passing, how fast they are going, and so on.”

TomTom was initially contacted following a presentation at a conference. “We looked at

other options too, but TomTom offered the most complete solution,” explains Iñaki Eguiara.

“The other options didn’t have the same quality and quantity of data.”

Online traffic information on road maps

The Basque Traffic Centre also wants to publish the real-time information online in the

near future. “This will mean all road users can see where there might be problems with

traffic jams on an online road map,” explains Iñaki Eguiara. “We used to publish incidents

that occurred on the road to our website using information from the police, so we knew

what was causing the problems, but we didn’t know how they affected the traffic flow.

Conversely, the information from TomTom doesn’t tell us the cause of a traffic jam, but it

does let us know how long the jam is, and how long vehicles are being delayed. Combining

the information from the police with the TomTom GPS data therefore means we now know

the cause and its consequences. The ultimate goal is to always resolve traffic jams quickly,

„Fewer traffic jams also results in less air

pollution and greater traffic safety.”

Iñaki Eguiara, head of the Basque Government’s traffic research area

http://trafficstats.tomtom.com



saving up to 500,000 euro of taxpayers’ money in fuel costs, and helping people be more

productive with shorter journey times. Fewer traffic jams also results in less air pollution and

greater traffic safety.”

The Basque Traffic Centre is not actually responsible for the road network itself, but it does

communicate with the government about it so that appropriate measures can be taken

when necessary, e.g. installing more traffic lights, roundabouts or speed bumps in places

where vehicles are driving too fast, or adding an extra lane to reduce traffic jams in certain

areas. The measurements also sometimes lead to unexpected conclusions. “We once

performed speed checks in a particular accident blackspot,” says Iñaki Eguiara. “We thought

the accidents were being caused by vehicles being driven too fast, but the combination of

TomTom data with historical information from our database identified they were mainly

being caused by the poor state of the road. We naturally pass this kind of information

straight on to the relevant authorities.”

Good collaboration with integrator

To get started with the TomTom data, the Basque Traffic Centre worked with integrator

Geograma, who ensured the information was displayed graphically, and are continuing

to provide technical support. “The collaboration with and communication between the

various parties has always been very easy,” says Giuseppe Noto, account manager with

TomTom. “We’ve been working with Geograma for some time now, so they already know

our products very well. The resolved technical problems straight away and, as a local partner,

they’re also close to both the client and the end users.”

The Basque Traffic Centre also stays in touch with TomTom. “We mainly contact them by

email when we have particular technical questions,” says Iñaki Eguiara. “We didn’t need any

training with the historical information for our first TomTom project because Traffic Stats is

such an accessible and user-friendly product. But the database analyses we want to perform

now are a bit more complex, so Geograma has been providing training.”

Interest from other regions

Following on from the first experiences with the data from TomTom, the traffic centre is

already very busy planning for the future. As well as the online maps for the general public,

it’s also possible we will start collaborating with other regions outside the Basque Country.

Iñaki Eguiara: “We are the first to use this method, and we’ve had lots of interest from other

regional traffic centres. We gave a presentation about our project at a conference in Madrid,

and we’re hoping to get even more out of the possibilities provided by TomTom soon, so

that we can improve the traffic situation even further.”

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basque government uses tomtom data to improve traffic flow

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