Clear Channel and Inrix Greatly Expand TMC Traffic Coverage
Inrix is on the move again, and they have announced that their traffic flow data based on the Dust Network is again expanding and that this expanded traffic data along with other flow data will be sent to us via TMC traffic by Clear Channel by the end of the first quarter 2007.
If you are already getting TMC traffic, what do you have to do to get the extra coverage of 50,000 miles of roads with traffic flow data up from about 5,000 miles? Nothing. After significant quality testing, that included teams driving routes in numerous metro areas to assure accuracy, Clear Channel is going to "turn on" the data transmission of the extra miles of roads by the end of the first quarter in 2007. This upgrade, if you will, covers 92 metro areas, including new coverage in 13 new traffic flow markets, including, St. Louis and Kansas City , Missouri ; Dayton , Ohio ; Manchester , New Hampshire ; Bakersfield , California ; and others.
Recall that there can be road coverage by incident data only (alerts you when a car is broken down or the road is under construction), which does not alert you to the traffic flow on that road. Traffic flow data alerts you, usually in color coding, that the traffic is moving quickly (green), not so good (yellow), or almost stopped (red). This is the stuff that good feedback is made of, and that's why this traffic flow announcement of a 10 fold increase in coverage is a major plus for you and me (as long as you have a traffic enabled GPS).
There's another significant development here that I will explore further tomorrow, and that's the announcement that Inrix now has accumulated over 1 million miles of historical average speeds for roads across the US; that's basically every interstate down to state highways and major commuting roads. Come back tomorrow and I'll talk about where the future of traffic reporting is going.
There are two separate press releases below that talk about the increased reach of traffic flow reporting and the Clear Channel agreement that allows you to get access to all of that data and information.
Press Release #1
Inrix Announces Industry’s Broadest Real-Time and Historical Traffic Coverage in the U.S.
Now Delivers Real-Time Speed Information for 92 Markets, and Historical Traffic Information for One Million Miles of Road
Inrix today announced immediate real-time traffic speed and flow data availability for nearly 50,000 miles covering 92 U.S. metropolitan markets and historical traffic coverage for nearly one million miles of roadways across the country. With its significantly expanded coverage, Inrix offers customers significantly more nationwide traffic data in more markets than any other traffic provider.
“Consumers and businesses alike need accurate, reliable traffic information that spans the entire country to make important decisions about traveling our major roadways and arterials,” said Bryan Mistele, co-founder and CEO of Inrix. “We are proud to announce 13 new real-time markets today to provide customers with the nation’s broadest coverage and we are committed to continued market coverage expansion.”
The new real-time markets now covered by Inrix include St. Louis and Kansas City , Missouri ; Dayton , Ohio ; Manchester , New Hampshire ; Bakersfield , California ; and others. Inrix’s detailed market coverage maps are available on the company’s web site at: http://www.inrix.com/coverageflow.asp. Inrix market coverage is based upon standard Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA’s).
Inrix is able to achieve broad market and road coverage through its unique “Smart Dust Network” approach of aggregating traffic-related information from traditional road sensors together with data from GPS-enabled vehicles and data from other sources. In addition, Inrix offers customers the most accurate traffic information available. The Inrix Traffic Fusion Engine is a sophisticated, proprietary technology that blends data and variables from hundreds of sources to provide the highest quality traffic information on the market.
Inrix leverages that same Traffic Fusion Engine to generate historical speeds for nearly one million miles of roadway across the United States . The Inrix Nationwide Average Speeds solution reports the average speed for every hour of the day and day of the week for every freeway, highway, state road, and major urban and rural arterials in the country. The product enables more accurate estimations for travel time as well as more time optimized routing and driving directions. To create historical Nationwide Average Speeds, Inrix analyzes years of data from the Inrix Smart Dust Network and then uses sophisticated statistical techniques to process this information and compute average speeds for about one million miles of roadway at the traffic segment link level and nearly 500,000 miles of roadway at the Traffic Messaging Channel (TMC) level.
Press Release #2
CLEAR CHANNEL EXPANDS TOTAL TRAFFIC NETWORK WITH INRIX REAL-TIME TRAFFIC IN 92 U.S. MARKETS
Expanded Speed Data from Inrix’s Smart Dust Network Will Enhance Offering to BMW, Garmin, Tom Tom and Other Customers
San Antonio, TX and Kirkland, WA – January 31, 2007 – Clear Channel’s Total Traffic Network, a division of Clear Channel Radio, and Inrix, Inc. today announced that they are extending their existing partnership to now include real-time traffic speed data from Inrix’s ‘Smart Dust Network,’ which intelligently combines the largest GPS-enabled vehicle probe network in the world with speed information from conventional road sensors and numerous other sources.
Clear Channel will deliver enhanced real-time traffic information via its Total Traffic Network in U.S. cities beginning at the end of first quarter 2007. Total Traffic Network is conducting ongoing ground truth testing of Inrix data using rigorous testing standards in preparation for market rollouts. The integration enables Clear Channel’s automotive and portable navigation customers including BMW, Garmin, Tom Tom, Mio/Mitac, NAVIGON, Cobra Electronics, Siemens VDO and others to provide higher quality, traffic-influenced dynamic routing and traffic congestion maps incorporating the broadest coverage of speed information available anywhere.
“Clear Channel has taken a leadership role in investing in the development of a high quality traffic data solution with comprehensive U.S. metropolitan coverage,” said Bryan Mistele, President & CEO, Inrix. “Total Traffic Network’s testing and acceptance of Inrix data is a significant endorsement of Inrix’s unique approach of intelligently combining traffic data from hundreds of sources enabling the delivery of highly reliable, broad coverage of traffic information to automakers and device manufacturers.”
Clear Channel’s Total Traffic Network currently deploys select Inrix real-time speed data, derived from traditional road sensors, in a dozen U.S. markets. With this enhanced relationship, Total Traffic Network is significantly expanding its real-time speed market coverage by leveraging Inrix’s Smart Dust Network, which combines anonymous speed and flow information from traditional road sensors, toll tags and more than 625,000 commercial fleet vehicles, delivery trucks and taxis across the United States. Total Traffic Network now has immediate access to real-time flow information from Inrix in 92 metropolitan markets, representing more than five times the coverage of conventional road sensor networks.
Jeff Littlejohn, Executive Vice President-Distribution, Clear Channel Radio stated, “The combination of Total Traffic’s incident information and Inrix’s real-time speed data with Clear Channel’s unparalleled RDS-TMC delivery network will enable Total Traffic Network customers to deliver the highest quality navigation experiences to their end users.”
Lance Locher, Senior Vice President, Clear Channel’s Total Traffic Network stated, “The ongoing testing of all of Total Traffic’s combined information sources, including the Inrix solution, is key in garnering the trust of consumers who rely on our traffic data. Our continuous goal is to provide the most accurate and reliable user experience possible.”
Total Traffic Network’s real-time traffic data, covering 49 major metropolitan areas across the U.S. , is included as part of the cost of the BMW navigation system, so there are no monthly fees. Other customers currently using Total Traffic Network’s real-time reports include Garmin International, Nextel, Verizon SMS, Kenwood Electronics, Tom Tom Navigator GPS, MSN Autos, MapPoint, Cingular QPass, ATX, AAA, Rand McNally, Weatherbug, Microsoft SPOT, Siemens VDO, Mio Technology, and Cobra Electronics.
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Posted by Scott Martin at January 31, 2007 9:07 AM
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