Method for providing traffic information

• US 20040233071A1
• Filed: 03/12/2004
• Published: 11/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DDG Gesellschaft für Verkehrsdaten mbH
• Original Assignee: DDG Gesellschaft für Verkehrsdaten mbH
• Inventors: Fastenrath, Ulrich
• Granted Patent: US 7,145,479 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/995.13
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/091 Traffic information broadcasting broadcasting communication H04H
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/092 Coding or decoding of the information
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09675 where a selection from the received information takes place in the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

A method for providing traffic information concerning one or more specific sections of a route to a traveler includes the steps of generating a bundle of traffic advisory messages for the traveler when an event relevant to the traffic situation has occurred in an affected section of the highway, wherein each of the traffic advisory messages present in the bundle of traffic advisory messages describes the traffic-relevant event in question at a different time within a defined interval and selecting a relevant message from the bundle of traffic advisory messages which is valid at a time relevant to the traveler.

Claims

1. A method for providing traffic information concerning one or more specific sections of a route to a traveler, comprising the steps of:

generating a bundle of traffic advisory messages for the traveler when an event relevant to the traffic situation has occurred in an affected section of the highway, wherein each of the traffic advisory messages present in the bundle of traffic advisory messages describes the traffic-relevant event in question at a different time within a defined interval; and

selecting a relevant message from the bundle of traffic advisory messages which is valid at a time relevant to the traveler.

2. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, wherein said step of selecting a relevant message is performed by the traveler.

3. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending the bundle of traffic advisory messages to a terminal of the traveler, wherein said step of selecting a relevant message is performed by the terminal.

4. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, wherein said step of selecting comprises selecting, by a service provider, the relevant message from the bundle of traffic advisory messages which is valid at a time relevant to the traveler.

5. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, wherein each of the traffic advisory messages includes an attribute “

transit time”

, which indicates the time which will be required to drive through the traffic event described by the message.

6. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, wherein the bundle of traffic advisory messages further include a bundle of transit time matrix information, the entries of these matrices indicating at least one of:

a travel time required to drive through the traffic event described by the bundle of traffic advisory messages at the time stated in each of the traffic advisory messages;

a travel time required to drive along the route in question from the starting point to a first reported event,

a travel time between two reported events, and

a travel time between the last reported event and a destination of the traveler.

7. The method for providing traffic information of claim 6, wherein the bundle of transit time matrix information has a structure corresponding to that of the bundles of traffic advisory messages, said method further comprising the step of calculating travel times on routes as sums of the travel times on free-flowing sections and the transit times through events.

8. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, further comprising the step of using, for the selection of the relevant time for the choice of the relevant traffic message from the traffic message bundle, the access function n(t)=i if:

T_i−

½

Δ

t≦

t≦

T_i+½

Δ

t.

9. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, wherein said step of generating a bundle of traffic advisory messages includes generating traffic message bundles with future validity times.

10. The method for providing traffic information of claim 9, wherein said step of generating a bundle of traffic advisory messages includes providing the traffic advisory messages having future validity times with a value characterizing the probability of the prediction.

11. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, wherein said step of generating a bundle of traffic advisory messages includes generating traffic message bundles with validity times in the past.

12. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, wherein said step of selecting comprises calculating linear distances and assumed speeds for certain classes of roads to determine the time relevant to the traveler.

13. The method for providing traffic information of claim 1, wherein said traffic advisory messages relate to an overall road network of a certain size.