Official word about TMC in the U.S.A.
12-17-2004, 11:04 AM
#1
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Thread Starter
Official word about TMC in the U.S.A.
Hey guys (gals?),
A while ago there had been some discussion about TMC and its availability in the US (follow this thread). OSLO, in his infinite wisdom, had provided a detailed explanation of the TMC service; and I took the liberty of forwarding the explanation to the US Dept. of Transportation, who in turn referred me to the "Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations Real Time Traveler Program" (say that 3 times fast!).
That's the history -- I have since received an 'official' response, backed by documented findings of a study performed in 1995.
For those of you with sufficient interest, here's the link to the study: Study: TMC in the US, and for those who are just curious, following is the e-mail response from FHWA:
I'll attempt to contact a few local broadcast stations (TV and radio) to get their thoughts on this 'consumer service'.. and will post responses to this thread as they come in (if they come in)..
A while ago there had been some discussion about TMC and its availability in the US (follow this thread). OSLO, in his infinite wisdom, had provided a detailed explanation of the TMC service; and I took the liberty of forwarding the explanation to the US Dept. of Transportation, who in turn referred me to the "Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations Real Time Traveler Program" (say that 3 times fast!).
That's the history -- I have since received an 'official' response, backed by documented findings of a study performed in 1995.
For those of you with sufficient interest, here's the link to the study: Study: TMC in the US, and for those who are just curious, following is the e-mail response from FHWA:
Originally Posted by FHWA-US
Thank you for your message about Radio Data System - Traffic Message Channel (RDS-TMC). We have been aware of RDS since it began testing in Europe and its adoption in the United States as Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS). There have been a few studies conducted over the past 6-9 years that tested the technical feasibility & applications, as well as investigating the various agency & institutional issues, in this country.
The I-95 Corridor Coalition (http://www.i95coalition.org/) sponsored an evaluation study of RDS-TMC in October 1995. (Report is available as a 368 kilobyte Adobe PDF file at http://www.its.dot.gov/JPODOCS/REPTS_TE/26001!.PDF.) While somewhat dated, the report identified a number of issues that presented challenges to using RDS-TMC. Many of these issues are still valid today. While there are more radio stations broadcasting RBDS data streams, virtually none of them have invested in the equipment needed to provide TMC data. Similarly, as you note, there are more radios in vehicles capable of receiving RBDS data, but they also do not generally have the decoding equipment needed to interpret TMC data. The challenges associated with how to & who will pay for this additional hardware certainly present real hurdles to broader use of RBDS-TMC.
Another wrinkle to providing information to vehicles (or any mobile device) is the emergence of wireless fidelity or Wi-Fi. Since Wi-Fi, and its variations, provide much more data than RBDS-TMC, it is not dependent on a predetermined list of message codes, such as that used by RBDS-TMC. As more Wi-Fi equipment is developed and better techniques for using Wi-Fi to communicate with vehicles, it should become easier to provide much more information to vehicles. There are still the challenges related to the hardware and software inside the vehicles to be overcome.
Again thank you for the information about RDS-TMC. As we continue to work with our partners in the State and local transportation agencies to develop better traveler information, RBDS-TMC remains a potential technology for delivering this information to motorists.
The I-95 Corridor Coalition (http://www.i95coalition.org/) sponsored an evaluation study of RDS-TMC in October 1995. (Report is available as a 368 kilobyte Adobe PDF file at http://www.its.dot.gov/JPODOCS/REPTS_TE/26001!.PDF.) While somewhat dated, the report identified a number of issues that presented challenges to using RDS-TMC. Many of these issues are still valid today. While there are more radio stations broadcasting RBDS data streams, virtually none of them have invested in the equipment needed to provide TMC data. Similarly, as you note, there are more radios in vehicles capable of receiving RBDS data, but they also do not generally have the decoding equipment needed to interpret TMC data. The challenges associated with how to & who will pay for this additional hardware certainly present real hurdles to broader use of RBDS-TMC.
Another wrinkle to providing information to vehicles (or any mobile device) is the emergence of wireless fidelity or Wi-Fi. Since Wi-Fi, and its variations, provide much more data than RBDS-TMC, it is not dependent on a predetermined list of message codes, such as that used by RBDS-TMC. As more Wi-Fi equipment is developed and better techniques for using Wi-Fi to communicate with vehicles, it should become easier to provide much more information to vehicles. There are still the challenges related to the hardware and software inside the vehicles to be overcome.
Again thank you for the information about RDS-TMC. As we continue to work with our partners in the State and local transportation agencies to develop better traveler information, RBDS-TMC remains a potential technology for delivering this information to motorists.
