In Tampere, data on the movement and speed of buses and taxis (GPS/GNSS) has been collected and utilized in traffic management for a long time. The data is used to produce traffic flow information for predefined street sections extensively throughout the entire city.
Data is collected from local public transport buses and Tampere Aluetaksi vehicles. There are over a thousand vehicles in operation generating data, making this a significant local Floating Car Data (FCD) dataset. This data is partially substituting the use of larger FCD data sets from e.g., navigation system providers, which are not in use.
In addition to vehicle FCD data, information on traffic volumes collected from traffic lights is also considered in the flow calculations. The collected data is loaded onto a map, irrelevant data points—such as those outside the street network—are cleaned out, and flow is calculated for defined street sections. In addition to flow, for example traffic stops in an unexpectedly locations are detected.
Traffic flow information is shared with end users via the www.tampereenliikenne.fi website and the flow is indicated with a three-level traffic light system: green/yellow/red. Traffic jam notifications are not provided based on this data.
