The Partners of Talking Traffic have reached agreements on how they envisage the collaboration and on what it is that we hold dear. Together, these are the principles of the Partnership. These agreements are:
- We make use of existing technology as much as possible.
- We comply with international standards of data exchange and develop new standards where needed.
- The solutions that will be developed within the Partnership contribute to road safety.
- We handle personal information with care.
- Data security has top priority.
Existing technology
The Partnership Talking Traffic makes optimal use of existing facilities. Existing traffic lights are converted into smart traffic lights, information will be offered via smartphones or built-in navigation and we use the existing telecom network to exchange data. This ensures relatively low investments as well as the possibility for all motorists having a smartphone to make use of the services.
Standards
Part of Talking Traffic is to develop information services for road users. This information must be provided in the same way everywhere. Being a road user, the last thing you want to do is having to switch between apps every time you cross a province or land border. This is why standards have been created: agreements that make sure that we operate in the same way everywhere. For example, we work with international standards for data exchange. Road users can therefore also make use of similar services across the border.
A special architecture has been designed for the rollout of the smart traffic lights, which ensures that software can communicate with all forms of hardware directly and unhindered. Road authorities can then purchase hardware from one provider, while purchasing software from another provider. All products of various suppliers can easily be combined and operate smoothly thanks to the standards. Traffic lights can then be operated flexibly and optimally.
At the same time, road authorities of cities, provinces and Public Works and Water Management are developing uniform ‘rules of play’ to organise intersections, for example. This reduces costs and ensures optimal knowledge sharing between governments mutually and between market and government.
