Inside TomTom's traffic products: Route Monitoring

TomTom Route Monitoring helps you stay on top of what’s happening on the road in real time. Traffic authorities and logistics companies use it to react faster to changing road conditions, reduce congestion and keep drivers safe.

Imagine you're on your way to an important job interview. Halfway through, you face a terrible traffic jam – and you're at the risk of missing the meeting.  The only one who can save you is an outstandingly efficient traffic management authority, which can reduce the hold-up and alert you about alternative routes or waiting times due to the congestion. And what that authority would need is TomTom Route Monitoring.  

 Harnessing the power of real-time data and predictive analytics, TomTom Route Monitoring helps traffic management bodies (or any organization which depends on movement of people and goods on the roads) effectively manage their road infrastructure and its traffic.  

TomTom Route Monitoring provides timely updates on how long pre-defined journeys will take, how much delay can be expected due to traffic and even the accuracy level of that information. This means traffic authorities can use these insights themselves or to influence drivers, enabling them to make smarter decisions on the road — like choosing a different route to avoid delays or leaving a bit later to miss the rush. They can even use these insights to modify speed limits on smart highways or roads with variable speed limits to improve flow and allow congestion to dissipate more quickly.  

The Route Monitoring tool has a range of up to 200km per route, making it ideal for monitoring large road networks, particularly for organizations with extensive coverage areas such as highway agencies.

Kristina Vuletic, Senior Product Manager for TomTom Traffic, explains, “Route monitoring allows you to see what’s happening on a particular route, thus improving the quality of the information on VMS (Variable Message Sign)- which, when sent to the drivers, helps them make informed decisions and improve traffic flow. Traffic management centers and road authorities can thus see if there’s a developing problem on a particular stretch of road, how long the delay is and send that via the VMS.”   

The Route Monitoring tool’s range is up to 200km per route, so it can help users monitor large sections of the road network. This naturally makes Route Monitoring ideal for organizations like highway agencies, who have very large coverage areas.  

“It’s primarily used to monitor key routes, mitigate traffic and warn drivers. Other customers use it to look at the traffic around places like airports, ports and city centers. Fleets use it to monitor specific routes that are important for logistics/deliveries,” Kristina adds.  

This tool not only allows users to keep an eye on the traffic flow and possible speed on key routes, but it also allows them to zoom in to see what's happening on specific sections of the road, giving them a grasp of the traffic situation in those areas as if they were stood by the roadside. 

A view of how the Route Monitoring tool works for a specific route.

A fresh view  

To monitor traffic conditions, cities and road authorities have traditionally relied on sensor networks and bulk traffic feeds. A bulk traffic feed refers to a large amount of traffic data transmitted or processed in one go. This includes real-time updates, historical data or analytics — all in a single batch. While they give a good overview of what’s happening on the road, they are also time-consuming, expensive to set up and complex to maintain due to the large volume of data involved, especially in dynamic traffic conditions which benefit from frequent updates. Additionally, processing, storing and transmitting such a significant amount of information requires robust infrastructure and efficient data management practices.  

TomTom Route Monitoring offers a simple, powerful and agile alternative to these traditional methods. The solution is based on TomTom’s live traffic information, which is created by merging multiple data sources, including anonymous measurements from GPS navigation devices, mobile phone signals and sensor data from governments. 

Users can access TomTom Route Monitoring in two ways: 

• A web-based application, accessible on TomTom’s MOVE portal 

• An API

Kamil Nowacki, Senior Quality Specialist for TomTom Traffic Analytics solutions, elaborates: “Once you define a route, the Route Monitoring tool will return live data for the whole route or a segment of it – like travel times and delays. For example, the main highway from Seattle to Olympia in Washington state often experiences heavy congestion, particularly during the afternoon rush hour, causing delays of more than 20 minutes. Route Monitoring helps identify and address where issues start.” 

TomTom’s live traffic information is created by merging multiple data sources, including anonymous measurements from GPS navigation devices, mobile phone signals and sensor data from governments.

 A tool for decision-making  

Route Monitoring is now used for analyzing traffic flows on highways all over the world, including France. The highway network in France broad and complex, it has many tolls, spans large distances across the country and is characterized by its numerous interchanges and high speed limits - all of which create a unique set of challenges that need to be carefully managed. 

Kamil says, “In France, high-tech traffic control centers use TomTom Route Monitoring to keep an eye on the highways 24/7. This helps them spot accidents and delays, so they can quickly decide if they need to send out highway help, firefighters, or ambulances.”  

A world where driving is a breeze, where our cities are free-flowing and where traffic jams are a thing of the past: with TomTom Route Monitoring that dream might be more than a possibility.