Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods for Dissertation

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods for providing near real time traffic information - Dissertation Example TOMTOM Company: Traffic Navigation System: Navigation system holds most significance in the present day lives of people allowing them to obtain information on traffic congestion and road safety, targeted towards reducing the negative effects of traffic problems. Navigation systems are owned particularly to obtain high quality information on traffic routes and in destinations that are unfamiliar for the drivers. Navigation systems provide the owners and drivers with suggestions on which route would be safer and suitable for them to reach to a particular destination (SWOV Fact Sheet – Safety effects of navigation systems 2010). TomTom Company provides its customers with a TomTom navigation device that allows them to obtain traffic updates on the screen of the device. Mobile phones of individuals can be connected with these devices. The company can keep a track of where these people are exactly moving and thus provide them with the accurate traffic updates on the location where t hey are present at a particular time. Other quality traffic information sources are used along with the availability of this device thus making the real time traffic information being available more effectively. ... One of the advantages of the navigation tool is that it provides road safety by allowing owners and drivers with suggestions to choose the most suitable route. This reduces the exposure of the users to dangers. With suitable route being suggested, the travel time also gets reduced. Users have to search less for the suitable routes on their own (SWOV Fact Sheet – Safety effects of navigation systems 2010). HD Traffic real-time traffic information is the basis for the navigation tool offered by TomTom. GPS and GSM systems are the fundamental concepts of the system that allows reliable information on traffic to the users of the navigation tool (White Paper – How TomTom’s HD TrafficTM and IQ RoutesTM data provides the very best routing n.d.). However a disadvantage of the tool is that adjustment of the tool needs to be done by the owners and doing this while driving is a risky task. However the overall mental stress and effort of the users reduce with the use of a na vigation tool. Moreover, traffic problems are reported to users at early stage so that they can avoid congestions and problems related to road traffic on their routes. However during certain times, information provided by these tools might be incorrect, particularly if the road maps on the tools are not updated regularly. Wrong information leads to wrong decision making in terms of choosing any particular route. Another major disadvantage of the tool is its dependency on categorization of roads which makes it difficult to determine which questions on the desirability of road categorization considering the safety on the roads (SWOV Fact Sheet – Safety effects of navigation systems 2010). GOOGLE Company: Google Maps, Traffic Sensors, and Crowdsourcing: Google maps, traffic sensors