The anonymous mobile phone position and signaling data in China Mobile’s GSM Network are collected, analyzed, and converted into travel time and speed information for major highways and surface streets in Shanghai. Currently, the system collects cellular data from 10 million China Mobile subscribers in Shanghai, and covers all roads within the inner ring area, including 483 miles of major roads comprising 1,700 roadway segments.
Congestion is a major problem in China. Government agencies and the commercial sector are urgently searching for efficient ways to access reliable traffic information. This implementation in Shanghai is the first step toward an anticipated nationwide roll-out with China Mobile. TrafficCast International says the deployment provides the first cost effective method of generating highly accurate, real-time traffic information within major cities and across inter-city freeways and state roads in China.
Professor Qixin Shi, an ITS researcher and former director of transportation institute at Tsinghua University at Beijing states, when TrafficCast International’s technology is deployed more widely it will enable China to leapfrog the US, Europe, and Japan, which rely heavily on traditional sensor technology, and it will support logistics management for the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games and 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
TrafficCast International and its sister company, TrafficCast China, have jointly developed a suite of probe technologies based on GPS and cellular data to extract dynamic travel time and speed information. The companies will leverage their technology to develop these probe technologies for wider adoption, with TrafficCast China focused on the China market, and TrafficCast International focused on US, Europe and other international traffic data markets.
TrafficCast International’s cellular probe deployment gives Shanghai a level of real-time traveler information that is still only a target for western cities, commented Alan Clelland, director of consulting for Siemens Energy and Automation Inc.’s Intelligent Transportation System’s business unit, the US arm of the global Siemens company. Siemens looks forward to expanding its partnering with TrafficCast International to leverage their market leading technology into Siemens’ ITS solutions.
