Traffic.com Ups Ante with Expanded Coverage

So who knew that the traffic data provider business was so competitive? Traffic.com has announced new expanded coverage of secondary roads using what they call “Probe Data”, which means anonymous signals from GPS navigation system enabled vehicles (fleet vehicles), toll tags, and cellular signals to help them get a better picture of traffic conditions. I don’t know which system is better but “Probe Data” doesn’t sound as cool as Inrix’s “Dust Network” which works on a similar principle of collecting data from fleets of GPS equipped trucks. Traffic.com claims to be the biggest and the best, Inrix, the up and comer. Either way, consumers are the winners. Battle it out, improve traffic reporting and get me to my destination faster, thank you very much. Information from Traffic.com’s press release is below.

Traffic.com announced that it has expanded its use of location-based, real-time probe data in all of its 50 metropolitan areas.

This enhanced integration extends Traffic.com's detailed coverage to arterial roadways and side-streets and broadens its comprehensive data sourcing and advanced collection methods. Increasing multiple-source coverage across the nation widens Traffic.com's lead position as the industry standard in delivering the most accurate and comprehensive traffic services to businesses and consumers in the United States.

Probe data, defined as anonymous, location-based data delivered from GPS-enabled vehicles, toll tags, and cellular signaling, adds to a myriad of select data resources collected by Traffic.com. The value of expanded probe data usage comes from the fact that it is leveraged with Traffic.com's industry leading breadth of real-time traffic information. Traffic.com is the only company that integrates data from a proprietary network of digital roadside sensors, agency data shared by government partners, and state-of-the-art event and accident information gathered through Traffic.com's local operations centers based across the country.

"Traffic.com is the largest integrator of real-time traffic data sources in the country," said Joseph Reed, chief information officer, Traffic.com. "The manner in which we collect, process and distribute information is widely recognized as unique and superior in the industry. We maintain the highest standards to expertly evaluate all data sources and we consistently ensure that we make only the highest quality, most accurate products available to our partners and consumers."

Through its proprietary Traffic Information Management System (TIMS), Traffic.com collects, aggregates, and normalizes data from numerous diverse sources and distributes traffic information across multiple platforms, including hundreds of broadcast clients and millions of consumers via the Web. TIMS, a sophisticated, highly-scalable processing engine which houses the nation's largest database of real-time, historical and predictive traffic data, has many patent-pending technologies and powers the advanced algorithms that supply the only truly real-time, accurate traffic information available in the market today.

Based on TIMS technology and its incomparable database of traffic data, Traffic.com is able to combine and analyze various factors and apply high-end algorithms to billions of data points to predict traffic trends before they happen. Launched to consumers in 2005, the Jam Factor(R) trending tool represents the easiest to use, most visible of Traffic.com's family of predictive products, available at www.traffic.com. Drivers can utilize this information to assess conditions and make informed decisions on optimal travel routes based on a simple and quick glance.

With delivering top-quality products as a driving factor, Traffic.com launched its Data Excellence Program to continually increase and evaluate breadth and depth of coverage, resulting in the provision of world-class traffic solutions. Through years of pioneering research, rigorous testing, and constant assessment of multiple sources of data, the Data Excellence Program has resulted in achieving the most comprehensive, accurate traffic solutions for businesses and consumers across the nation.

"Careful and determined evaluation of data sources is a fundamental part of our value proposition," Reed added. "For example, each day we are processing millions of points of probe data. Through our stringent quality assurance processes, we are able to precisely pull out the probe data that is irrelevant and can significantly degrade the accuracy of results, such as a delivery truck parked during lunch hour or stopped at a service plaza. Traffic.com only includes the data that absolutely reflects what is happening on the roads."

August 18, 2006

Traffic.com Ups Ante with Expanded Coverage