ITIS Traffic Information

[RCorry]

[swing]

[GPS_fan]

Yes he was, you're right and I missed rather a big clue in his post
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Andy
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[beaconlegal]

Approx 8.15 a.m. today I received a message via RDS-TMC showing queuing traffic on the A449 northbound from the junction with the A442 to Hoo Roundabout, Kidderminster and on up the A449 Chester Road from there.

The queue was there - BUT - it was southbound traffic that was queuing. A449 Northbound was flowing freely - indeed, was almost empty!

Yesterday, however, I was delayed for half an hour northbound close to the same spot. I had a solid lock on traffic information and there was no mention at all of any incidents on the route in any direction!

[DennisN]

Today, 7th January, I got Traffic details via RDS-TMC on my TomTom GO920T, saying A36 south of Salisbury had congestion/lane closure with delay of 1:55hrs. Like a nutter, I ignored it and carried on. When I got there, I found a a sign for roadworks, then 7 men with strimmers cutting the bank beside the dual carriageway, one lane closed for the first 100 yards of dual carriageway, then open thereafter. If I were true to my fellow whitevanmen, I could have belted through there at 70mph. The delay markings on the 920T showed in both directions.
Following coordinates
N 51.05971, W 1.76198
to
N 51.02776, W 1.71244
But the displayed delay markings were from further in each direction of the A36.

I assume the details will have arisen from a highways department issuing warnings of roadside verge works "delays likely". The A36 at that point can be an absolute nightmare if you get there at the wrong time when there's a road problem. But I get the impression today was a poor result.

Would somebody from ITIS care to investigate and comment please?

Or has the thread quietly ground to a standstill?
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[M8TJT]

Don't know about the thread, but the contributions from ITIS seem to have dried up. Last one I can find with a quick scan of posts was last October.

Strange as it was ITIS that started the thread. It woul appear that they have got a bit shy. Perhaps the critisism here is justified and they are now embarassed about it.

[mikealder]

The last contribution from iTIS was within the last week - see Here - Mike

[DennisN]

Further to my post yesterday. I have today been to Merthyr Tydfil. Route was M4 westbound to junction 32, then north. RDS-TMC warned of lane closure at Cardiff - I know about these, Motorway widening works lasting a long time, lane closures and contraflow. Here again, Cardiff area can be an absolute nightmare at and around rush hour (even without the roadworks), but my journey was at 1pm. The device warned me of 1hr 36 mins delay, which I thought ridiculous, so I ignored it and carried on through. Apart from there being a 50mph speed limit (with cameras), I suffered no delay. The return route offered the same delay information and again I ignored it. This way, I suffered a bit more delay because I chose the wrong lane, wrong side of the contraflow. But it was no great delay at all, just down to 25mph for a short time.

This leads me to conclude that the information is being wrongly handled.

EITHER, ITIS is getting it wrong - maybe they have some sort of formula for lane closures, take the length of the lane closure in yards/metres, then multiply it by the number you first thought of and that's the number of minutes delay to insert.
OR TomTom is getting it wrong in some similar manner.

Either way, a formula is not good. What would you do? Maybe reduce expected speed by 50% for lane closure? Say you did that and reduced speed from 60mph to 30mph, it would take a lane closure of 100 miles to incur a delay of 100 minutes (for goodness sake tell me my maths is accurate?). Whatever - it would be a clever formula. I think this set of roadworks is maybe about 5 miles long - you could walk that far in the 1hr 36mins delay time forecast!!

To be sure, the information was not accurate. For example, the indicated delay/lane closures extended beyond junction 32, therefore when I returned to join at J32, you'd expect the delay to run back onto the entry slip road, but it didn't.

Mr ITIS, please come and look at these posts from me and offer comments.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[M8TJT]

[Skywalker]

Hi all I live in this area and this delay has been showing constantly since mid December maybe earlier as this is when I bought my 720T.
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Tomtom 720T
App 8.204
W.E. v705.1480

[perussell]

I have had a 'bee in my bonnet' about ITIS traffic info for a couple of years now which is recorded elsewhere in these forums.
Bottom line is it is very rarely correct, perhaps less than 20% of the time and especially where dynamic traffic info e.g. congestion is concerned

I happened to notice that I had picked up a TMC signal travelling up the M5 last Saturday and activated the reports to see that according to ITIS there was major congestion only 800 yds in front of me. Needless to say the M-way was as quiet as I have ever known it with nothing on either side.

One tries to be impartial about these things but the bottom line is that the ITIS info is so unreliable as to be utter rubbish thereby rendering TMC on the majority of satnav units (when you can pick it up) as worthless.

I have had my T/Master Freeway for years and whilst it is restricted to major roads only, can only 'see' 10 miles or 2 junctions ahead and deals only with congestion it is nonetheless correct 90% of the time. It does get it wrong but not very often and has saved me hours (if not days) over the past few years

Unless there is a major improvement in TMC during 2008 the next satnav I buy won't even feature TMC - why pay extra for something so fundamentally flawed.

[Jonfo]

[perussell]

Wow! Quick response!

Jonfo, I can't in all honesty even remember exactly where it was when I picked up the messages last Saturday but I think it was around Gloucester in the area of J12 - J10 of the M5 and it would have been about 1030am heading N Bound - the message clearly showed congestion 800 yds away from where I was but nothing. My T/M Freeway was indicating that the road was clear (or to be more specific that traffic was travelling in excess of 30 mph)

Another incident, not as bad, but bad enough
Thurs Dec 27th M62 eastbound , approx 1400 hrs
ITIS info - congestion between J24 and J27, average speed 20 mph
T/master Freeway - stationary traffic for 10 miles, 40 minute delay between J24 and J27

As I reached J24 I could see a whole mass of stationary tail lights just beyond the junction, I trusted the TM and turned off the M-way at that point.

These are just the 2 most recent incidences. I really, really wish it worked but I can only tell you what I experience and that is that ITIS is wrong more often that it is right where congestion is concerned. I have genuinely lost count of the times I have sailed through an area where the TMC was warning of congestion. It has been correct on 2 or 3 occasions in the last few months but no more than that.

[DennisN]

[Jonfo]

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