november 2006 archives

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Traffic brings the map to life

The National Accessibility Map of the Netherlands is an interactive isochrone map showing the travel time by car to one particular destination that the user specifies. Users may further chose from three scenarios: the calculation of the isochrone map may take into account either morning or evening rush hour traffic or may just disregard traffic conditions altogether. The underlying traffic data comes from the Transport Research Centre and is also included in the Mobility Atlas.

Actually, these accessibility maps are not true isochrone maps, but rather choropleth maps. Postcode areas are allocated to a particular class based on the travel time to the centre point of that postcode area. Thus, isolines do not determine the extend of each time zone, but the boundaries of the original postcode areas. Furthermore, the map ignores the travel time within a postcode area.

While the current accessibility maps are based on travel time by car, there are plans to also show accessibility maps based on journey time by public transport next year. A great example are the Travel-time Maps for Great Britain as created by the mySociety team and funded and supported by the Department for Transport.

The National Accessibility Map is a tool for real estate development as it clearly shows the long-term effects of traffic conditions on the market value of real estate. However, there is also short-term benefit from insight in current traffic conditions. One need only read the previous posting on TomTom Mobility Solutions. Another development emphasising the importance of traffic information is the news that Navteq agreed to acquire Traffic.com. Already, Navteq Traffic aggregates real-time traffic conditions from multiple traffic information sources available in 32 metropolitan areas in the US. Also, Traffic.com offers real-time customised traffic reports in 50 metropolitan areas and is a critical data component of Navteq Traffic. Navteq had been working with Traffic.com as a partner since 2004. Since traffic information is the most requested add-on to satellite navigation systems, this acquisition seems pretty reasonable.

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