VOICES Traffic Data

**skippy76** · 05-11-2004, 12:16 PM

Ok!! So, i've figured some more stuff out.

TPEG!

http://www.innovations-report.com/ht...ort-25245.html

TMC is specific to radio channel broadcast, where as TPEG is generic and not media specifc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/tpeg/
http://www.tpeg.org/

I think this is the protocol that maybe of use! The BBC have been doing a lot of R&D of this (see bbc link above).

**tekta** · 05-11-2004, 01:33 PM

On a similar tip, I am currently recording the positions of the various traffic jamcams around the UK. I have done most of the M4 and M5, but there are loads in london, south wales, scotland etc. Obviously the idea being that you click on a marker and the latest camera view will pop up.

I only have Autoroute 2001 at hand at the moment though and it doesn't seem to export pushpins. Is there a universal format that can be imported into Navigator, Route 66 etc, that allows for web links? This might be useful for your VOICES system, but may be best as a simple overlay.

**skippy76** · 05-11-2004, 01:53 PM

You are probably best getting Mappoint 2004. Basically, within the Microsoft family there is Autoroute (Europe) and Streets and Trips (US) which are for 'home' use. Then there is Mappoint which exists in both the US and European markets. These have very 'similar' interfaces to both AutoRoute and Streets and Trips, but enable the use of databases and also for external software to interface with it. Hence why VOICES uses Mappoint.

**veetid** · 05-11-2004, 01:54 PM

Well my idea was stupid... I coded my site to scrape data from www.sigalert.com and gather all exit names. Then used the GPS to get the city, zip and so forth. I then ran them through a site, which helped me geocode them and then added them all as pushpins into mappoint. It worked, but it was way to slow. Took like 4 seconds for each exit on interstate and I was doing tons of them.

**veetid** · 05-11-2004, 02:26 PM

I do use Mappoint 2004... I get it through my MSDN developer subscription. My problem was the only "free" California traffic data I could find basically just gives you StreetNames/Speeds. Thats it... I tried using Mappoint to enter in Intersections, but it always got them way off. I then tried to geocode the intersections and get lat/long, but it took way to long because I was doing the geocoding from a website post that took like 4 seconds for one intersection.

**stevieg** · 05-11-2004, 03:17 PM

Right, now have something workable.

Website is http://www.stevieg.org/traffic - You need to register on it don't worry you'll get no spam by entering your email address, you need it for the password to be sent.

Currently three data sources, two types - Route 66 TMC and BBC TPEG. The route 66 data needs more work as the lat/lon it gives are wrong at the moment.

Data is downloadable as XML or CSV. The CSV is the easiest format if you are looking to test the data by simply importing into MapPoint or similar.

Notes:
* This is a beta version so expect a couple of bugs if I haven't seen them yet
* I know the only usable data so far is the UK, but feel free to give me some more data sources that provide the right information, I'll have a go at parsing anything. If you can fix the Route 66 lat/lon, tell me.
* You'll see the URL for the route 66 data is not pointing at the route 66 server - this is because my hosting provider blocks connecting by the server to port 8080, so I've had to put a 'proxy' page in. The data is live.
* Type of incident is not implemented yet, it will be given time though, I've only had a few hours on and off during the day to write all this including the parser back end.
* Once again it's not finished, there are more feature to add obviously.

**stevieg** · 05-11-2004, 03:30 PM

Just tested importing the data as CSV into mappoint, looks like it works OK - Not that's there's much traffic where I live though

**skippy76** · 05-11-2004, 03:33 PM

Excellent stuff!!! How did you decode the Route 66 stuff?

**wildcard** · 05-11-2004, 03:42 PM

Those route 66 coords you gave a link for look like lat/lon with the decimal point missing so 5655341 is 56.55341 and -259870 is -2.59870 - looks like decimal point goes 5 digits in from the right. Works for the few lines I tested.

**stevieg** · 05-11-2004, 03:44 PM

Originally Posted by skippy66

Excellent stuff!!! How did you decode the Route 66 stuff?

It's not properly decoded, just parsed. there's something not right about many of the lat/lon for route 66.

but the basic code (without error checking and db code) is in php the following:

PHP Code:


$tmc_raw=file($url);

    

foreach ($tmc_raw as $tmc_line) {

    $tmc_line=trim($tmc_line);

    list($d,$d,$lat,$lon,$d,$d,$d,$date,$road,$desc,$where) = explode('    ',$tmc_line);

    $lat=substr($lat,0,2) . '.' . substr($lat,2);

    $lon=substr($lon,0,2) . '.' . substr($lon,2);

    echo "$lat,$lon,$where<br>";    



    }