Thread: VOICES Traffic Data

@Stevig: If you need webspace, mysql and PHP access, I can provide you wish an account on my webserver (the same as Satish uses for VOICES). Currently I have about 140 Gb of free space on my server, so space is not a problem.

Obviously the key to a successful interface is to keep the amount of data transferred to a minimum. The client (VOICES) already has the maps, so no maps would need to be transferred. Obviously some method of parssing websites would be needed, and each new website added would need it's own parser.

I know for the UK, Route 66 application has an 'update traffic' button. You may want to sniff / Etherreal the communication with the Route 66 server. I presume it's eithere an FTP or HTTP pull. You could then use the same data format for communication as them. Route 66 software can be found at www.66.com If you need some Ethereal trace I can get that for you.

Update: I notice that Route 66 now provide traffic info for: "Free up-to-date traffic information for NL, F, I, D, and GB "

Let's just use their interface!!! Free data!!! Route 66 has just entered the US Market as well, so hopefully before long they maybe a good source for US Traffic data.

Andrew

Originally Posted by skippy76

@Stevig: If you need webspace, mysql and PHP access, I can provide you wish an account on my webserver (the same as Satish uses for VOICES). Currently I have about 140 Gb of free space on my server, so space is not a problem.

Thanks for the offer, if the traffic gets expensive I might take you up on that! At the moment, I've just added MySQL to my existing web hosting.

Originally Posted by skippy76

Obviously the key to a successful interface is to keep the amount of data transferred to a minimum. The client (VOICES) already has the maps, so no maps would need to be transferred. Obviously some method of parssing websites would be needed, and each new website added would need it's own parser.

Indeed, that's exactly what I'm doing. I've written a couple of parsers already, I'm just re-working them from on-demand to scheduled (every 5 mins) to keep the lot in a single up-to-date db table.

Originally Posted by skippy76

I know for the UK, Route 66 application has an 'update traffic' button. You may want to sniff / Etherreal the communication with the Route 66 server. I presume it's eithere an FTP or HTTP pull. You could then use the same data format for communication as them. Route 66 software can be found at www.66.com If you need some Ethereal trace I can get that for you.

We're defininately on the same train of thought. I've already done as you suggest for Route 66, which I bought a while back, but the location data doesn't seem to be lat/lon.

Here is the URL it uses for UK: http://rs0124.66.com:8080/tmc?time=0&l=ENG&m=eng8&u=1
and here is the URL for Germany: http://rs0124.66.com:8080/tmc?time=0&l=ENG&m=deu8&u=1

Be good if someone can convert this, I've had a brief look but doesn't seem to be any recognised representation of lat/lon. Quick script I wrote a few weeks ago to make it importable into MapPoint is http://supra.aston.ac.uk/tmc.php but that shows that the lat/lon is wrong.

The first feed that I've got working and plotting the correct locations comes from this URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/xml/tpegml_en/rtm.xml - Which gets and shares data with the UK highways agency - http://www.tih.org.uk/TIH/Index.do

Ah, have done a little googling... It appears that the system that Route 66 uses is a stanard called TMC (Traffic Message Channel). Which is used for Traffic Desemination.

http://www.catsmpo.com/itsarc/illino...ace/eqpd94.htm

http://itsarch.iteris.com/itsarch/html/ep/ep94_b.htm

http://www.tmcforum.com/tmc/what_is.htm

Basically some sort of Proxy would be needed to take TMC data and change it to http. This is what Route 66 provides...

Maybe it would be better to provide a TMC client on VOICES.

Originally Posted by skippy76

Ah, have done a little googling... It appears that the system that Route 66 uses is a stanard called TMC (Traffic Message Channel). Which is used for Traffic Desemination.

http://www.catsmpo.com/itsarc/illino...ace/eqpd94.htm

http://itsarch.iteris.com/itsarch/html/ep/ep94_b.htm

http://www.tmcforum.com/tmc/what_is.htm

Basically some sort of Proxy would be needed to take TMC data and change it to http. This is what Route 66 provides...

Maybe it would be better to provide a TMC client on VOICES.

See my previous post, also have you any idea how to change the TMC data route 66 provides to lat/lon?

Ok, so... as I see, the output from the URL: http://rs0124.66.com/tmc?time=0&v=1&...8&z=1&u=286068

Is obviously binary data of some sort... now we need to try and figure out the format of this data as it's not ascii and thus not readable. Any one have any thoughts? or knows someone who has access to Route 66 source code ;-)

Now if only i could find something similar for Toronto

Well, I'm sure there are TMC sources out there for Canada. The idea is that Stevieg produces the ultimate source of traffic data via his site, which would make use of as many different data sources as possible.