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Tom Tom sets new record for charity traffic jam
| DATE: 08 June 2012 |
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| BY: Bernice Maune |
Tom Tom celebrates two years of High Definition Traffic, beating Spain's previous record in Soweto.
A brand best known for its GPS gadgets has set a new record for itself when it brought together 12 243 toy cars in Soweto. This was a commendable feat as Tom Tom beat its previous record of 12 500 as set in Spain. Local kids were treated when they were invited to participate in Tom Tom's celebration of two years of high definition traffic. Toy cars collected during the charity drive will be donated to several non profit organisations through out the country.
The exciting event took place on 31 May. Various charities joined the occassion with StreetWire making 1716 wire cars for the kids to enjoy. The number 1716 links to the average annual saving in commuter travel time by using a TomTom Live Service, which combines the intelligent routing of IQ Routes with real-time traffic feeds.
On 3 June 2010, TomTom South Africa announced the launch of their benchmark traffic service – HD Traffic, and now, two years later TomTom is able to share findings of their anonymous collected GPS historical data for major, main and secondary road networks in South Africa. The N1 North from Buccleuch to Old Johannesburg Road off ramp is arguably the busiest road section.
The TomTom traffic team in Amsterdam gathered the following interesting statistics of the GFIP (Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project) deployment on this road section:
• Overall average travel time on this road section has been reduced by 50%. What used to be an average travel time of 23 minutes throughout the day can now be done in just under 13 minutes due to the GFIP project.
• The 85th percentile evening peak commuter has an impressive average saving of 20 minutes daily for this road section.
• Before GFIP, the average driving speed ranged between 10 and 85 km/h which has increased to 65 and 110 km/h after the completion of the initiative.
• After the redesign of the Allandale intersection the average speed improved by 70 km/h during afternoon peak time.
• In the past the Buccleuch to New Road offramp trip used to take an average of 15 minutes, but has now improved to as little as five minutes during afternoon peak hours.
• New Road in Midrand has not substantially benefitted from GFIP as the travel time across this section remains the same.
The historical traffic data can be used by a variety of traffic planners and engineers to identify bottlenecks and prove the effectiveness of road network changes. TomTom uses the same data to provide the user the most optimal route to its destination.
“We are very proud of this important milestone that has been reached today, and this is mainly due to the continuous improvement of our HD Traffic service. Worldwide over five billion unique road measurements are recorded on a daily basis, making TomTom the global leader,” said country manager of TomTom South Africa Daan Henderickx.
