Partner News: TNO provides algorithm for Dynamic Route Information Panels

Date: 25 July 2008

Four Dynamic Route Information Panels (DRIPs) have been positioned on A1 and A12 motorway access roads to the A30 (at the Barneveld junction) in The Netherlands to provide information on the length of the traffic jams, and on alternative routes. In 2003 TNO developed an algorithm to estimate traffic jam lengths on non-motorway roads containing bottlenecks, such as controlled intersections. This algorithm, named FLIP, was originally designed and calibrated by TNO for the Pleijroute in Arnhem.

The total length of the traffic jams shown by the DRIPs at the Barneveld junction is a combination of the jams caused by the traffic signals (estimated by the FLIP algorithm) and the jam on the A30 (determined by an alternative algorithm). The solution developed by TNO was commissioned by Vialis (in their turn commissioned by Rijkswaterstaat Regional Directorate East-Netherlands) to initially determine optimal locations for measurement loops, and then to calibrate the parameters of the algorithm using data collected by field observer through queue measurements.

More accuracy

At the end of 2007, TNO also recalibrated the parameters of the FLIP algorithm for the Pleijroute, again for Vialis. The number of measurement loops was expanded enabling the length of the traffic jam to be estimated more accurately. The new parameter settings have since been implemented in the Central Drip Management System at both sites and inform drivers of the length of traffic jams.