Drivers Tend to Rely More on Information Boards When Travelling – RSD Increases Their Number
More and more people tend to rely increasingly more on the variable information boards located along the motorway and expressway networks when travelling. An increase in their numbers has been supported by their ever higher efficiency and now three years of practical experience. The existing 48 boards will be doubled at the end of 2010. Besides motorway boards, the other most frequent sources of traffic information include radio stations, television, mobile telephones, and GPS navigation. This is the outcome of a survey conducted by the Road and Motorway Directorate and concerning the Uniform Traffic Information System (JSDI).
The survey conducted by the Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic has focused mainly on the evaluation of benefits offered by the variable information boards to the quality of information about actual traffic situations among the drivers. The latest modern telematic technologies were compared from various angles to other media as part of separate sociological surveys. “Up to sixty percent of the drivers questioned said that they made use of traffic information shown on variable boards. They have so far been placed in large numbers only on the D1 and the D8 Motorways. They have currently been installed or their installation is prepared on the D5 and the D2 Motorways”, CEO Alfred Brunclík of the Road and Motorway Directorate says, commencing on the outcome of the survey.
The absolutely highest ratio of drivers (90 percent) relies on traffic information broadcast by radio stations. This is mainly due to the fact, among other things, that some radio stations can be heard anywhere and that traffic information has been broadcast here for more than 35 years (since September 1974, by Czechoslovak Radio). The other places in the standings went to the Internet (36 percent), television (30 percent), mobile telephones (20 percent) and GPS navigation (19 percent).
“Ninety five percent of the drivers addressed read texts shown on variable boards always or sometimes. At the same time, 94 percent of the respondents said that the texts were always understandable. The most important information in the order of significance cover notification of traffic accidents, tailbacks, road works, and the weather”, Mr Alfred Brunclík said. Seventy three percent of the recipients believe that the information shown on variable boards is sufficient or quite sufficient.
As regards shortcomings existing in the area of variable boards, drivers most often complain about their total number. People seem to consider than as too few. Yet another complaint claims that information displayed on them should be even faster. “It needs to be appreciated in this connection that, from the moment of a traffic accident, over the dialling of the telephone number of any of the elements of the Integrated Rescue System, delivery of such urgent information to the officer in charge or dispatcher, its evaluation and processing, immediate dispatch of the relevant forces and means, and at the same time its automated transfer to the National Traffic Information Centre, and verification, such immediate sending of a specific text to the relevant variable board, in practice requires a time in the range of minutes”, Mr Alfred Brunclík explains. There hardly can be a “zero” delay.
At the time between the notification of the event and its publication on a variable board as well as via any other media, logically, a certain number of drivers will exist (depending on traffic density in the range of tens to hundreds) who will never get the information about the traffic accident or any other event occurring before them. Such immediate primary information released after the occurrence of the event cannot be exact or complete in a number of cases.
In fact, nobody (with the exception of the emotionally involved person who makes the emergency call or other drivers passing the same place) knows exactly the situation on the spot, and that also includes the exact specification of the place, type of event, and the scope of restriction of the road capacity. Immediately after any such event, the information from the spot is rarely exact; its comprehensive nature logically increases step by step after the commencement of the intervention, resolution of the event, and liquidation of its aftermath.
Similar results were recorded in a December survey conducted by the Czech Central Auto and Motorcycle Club (ÚAMK) using a specific sample of 532 members of the “UAMK Green Angel” (Zelený anděl ÚAMK) club from the whole of the Czech Republic. The variable information boards have been relied upon by 52 percent of drivers, while Czech Radio 1 “Radiožurnál” or other radio stations were listened to by 80 percent of the inquired drivers. Almost a half of the respondents mentioned also the Traffic Portal of the Czech Republic at www.dopravniinfo.cz among their sources of information.
The Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic, in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, the Police Force of the Czech Republic, the Fire Brigades of the Czech Republic, regional ambulance services, the Czech Hydro Meteorological Institute, road administration authorities, road management organisations, and other bodies, organisations, and institutions, continue to build up and develop the Uniform Traffic Information System for the Czech Republic, so that drivers can enjoy as up to date information as possible.
Beside publishing information by way of the “traffic information means”, www.dopravniinfo.cz, and broadcast via the RDS-TMC services, such information is or may be available for free in the data format – only subject to the execution of a standard contract – to all subscribers from among radio and television stations, operators of traffic information services, web portals, telecommunication operators, transporters and carriers and all other users of the roads.
The content of the provided traffic information has been constantly improved by way of the development of intelligent traffic systems, which monitor and assess – with help of information technologies – the traffic situation and automatically share any topical information for publication with the National Traffic Information Centre. In January 2010 alone, this workplace handled more than 19,000 individual reports about events and occurrences, which were capable of endangering or restricting safety or smoothness of traffic, in part or in full, at certain sections of the roads all over the Czech Republic.
The Road and Motorway Directorate is gradually building up and developing a number of other intelligent traffic systems, such as systems of dynamic weighting, meteorological systems, systems of counting traffic intensity and detection of tailbacks, close circuit camera supervision systems, the above-described variable boards as well as variable traffic signs and a number of other systems facilitating higher safety and smoothness of traffic and higher comfort of all drivers.
