Traffic messaging, dynamic updating and road database standards: the major issues

The authors describe how international efforts to develop and refine a standard for digital road databases (termed geographic data files [GDF]) have been paralleled by efforts to use traffic messages to update GDF, typically by RDS-TMC. The integration of RDS-TMC messages with GDF requires the resolution of some fundamental issues. These problems are being approached from different directions by PROMETHEUS and a number of DRIVE projects and findings are fed directly into CEN the European standards body, for early standardisation