Location-based dynamic route guidance system of Korea: System design, algorithms and initial results

Over the last two years, the Korean Expressway Corporation (KEC) has developed a location-based dynamic route guidance system. The targets of the new system are the users of mobile-phones, the internet, and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant), etc. Spatially the system covers 2,804 km of expressway and 484 km of national highway where the travel time collection systems are installed. The developed routing system is in many aspects different from the existing telematics-related services in Korea. It is based on predicted traffic information rather than real-time traffic information, and provides web and location based in-vehicle route guidance system. It utilizes GML (Geographical Markup Language) and GIS (Geographical Information System) in order to create GML DB (Data Base), and follows the standard format of the ISO (International Standard Organization) for GDF (Geographic Data File). Initial results of the proposed system including the accuracy of route travel time forecasts and the soundness of suggested routes were found to be acceptable. After development, the KEC has successfully tested a pilot service of the new system and is currently preparing for a full-scale implementation.