Traffic Management Centre (TMC)

TMC makes it possible to inform drivers, via their navigation systems, about delays, problems or dangerous events on their route, and can therefore improve the efficiency and safety of road travel. TMC is an excellent example of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems and Services) deployment and has been rolled out in many countries worldwide.

A key consideration in maximising the safety and efficiency benefit of TMC is the provision of strong cross-border links. Many journeys go beyond national borders, thus it is important for the driver to know about traffic events occurring beyond the frontier, and therefore monitored by a different service provider. TMC supports cross-border messages using a mechanism called “Inter-road” messages. This means that a service provider can send messages about incidents which occur just outside its own service area or country.

In order to set up such a service, each country’s service provider must arrange to exchange data with neighbouring service providers. In addition, to benefit from such a service, the driver’s navigation system will need to be able to receive TMC messages in the current area, as well as decode and display them for the relevant area.