The current usage and development needs of traffic data

Finnish Road Administration (Finnra) collects wide variety of traffic data. Finnra uses the data as basic information for road maintenance and documentation. Customers and stakeholders of Finnra are also users of the data. The needs for information content and dissemination vary between different actors. Moreover, the ongoing changes in the processes and in operational environment are causing needs to develop the collection, management and utilization of traffic data. The aim of this pre-study has been to identify the needs for information content and quality and to present the current state of information services and data availability. As a result, the necessary development projects have been presented. The study has been based on expert interviews and literature review. The traffic volume and vehicle types are the most important data in both internal and external processes. The most commonly used data is the AADT of light and heavy vehicles, which give a general picture of the importance of the road and define the needed quality standard for maintenance measures. The peak hour traffic volume information is used in the technical design. Speed and traffic fluency data are used in the traffic safety work and in the real-time information services. Traffic flow and journey-based data and the regarding background data are used in traffic system planning and network planning. The applications are network analyses and traffic forecasts. In project planning flow data can be used also in the evaluation of effects and their distribution. Different flow- and road user data are also used in the planning of operational maintenance. Traffic accident data is important on every planning level as an argument for better traffic safety. Information about the usage of public transport and non-motorized transport are also needed but at present availability of data is insufficient. Generally the collected data covers most of the current needs. New indicators are needed in the evaluation of Finnra's operation, communication and in new acquisition methods to measure service level, efficiency and the investment benefits and their distribution. The development needs for information content can be divided into making presently collected data more accurate and expansion of information content. The development of the usability of collected information is uttermost important. The user interface and reporting tools need to be developed and the various databases need to be integrated into the planned information system of Finnish Road Administration. The vision of the traffic information system was formed on the basis of interviews and a workshop. The vision functions as an initiative to continue the development work. The results of the pre-study have been summarized into recommendations for future projects, which are needed to develop the traffic information system according to the vision. The projects require co-operation between Road Administration, municipalities and other administration levels as well as other stakeholders. An important catalyst for change is increase in cross-administrative work in the planning of traffic system. This report may be found at http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/julkaisut/pdf/3200913-vliikennetietojen_kayttokohteet.pdf