As of last week, Lithuanians are able to check the situation on the roads country-wide in real time. Such information is available to the public from the dedicated website at www.eismoinfo.lt. The launch of this website has finalised one of the main steps in the process of implementing the National Road Traffic Information System project. This is the first traffic information system in the Baltic countries, providing a basis for further development of ways to inform people on the road.
According to Gintaras Cilcius, Director of the Traffic Information and Management Division at the Lithuanian Road Administration (LRA) under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the deployment of a traffic information system is one of the most important intelligent transport system projects. “Intelligent transport systems may improve the quality of passenger carriage, as real-time information about the situation on the roads helps planning transport routes, improving traffic safety and efficiency of traffic control and road maintenance, and lend prompt assistance in emergencies,” the spokesman for the LRA said.
The implementation of the road traffic information system has been carried out by intelligent engineering solutions company Fima in cooperation with Affecto Lietuva, one of the biggest IT companies in Lithuania. The project works lasted for more than a year and consisted of the following phases: the installation of an infrastructure to record traffic conditions on national roads in Lithuania, the development of the Traffic Information Centre and the development of the Traffic Information System.
Within the framework of the project, 43 automated road weather stations with facilities to watch weather conditions and video cameras as well as traffic counters were deployed on every road of national importance across Lithuania. All this hardware, plus the 48 weather condition stations that had been deployed earlier were covered by the new Traffic Information System, which compiles data on roads and their condition. To control the system, the Traffic Information Centre was set up, complete with a state-of-the-art video wall: eight video cubes display details of traffic and weather conditions on roads, with specialists observing them continuously. Traffic information will be made available both to special services in charge of road maintenance that will be able to plan and control such operations, and to travellers, who will be able to plan ahead for inclement weather or possible traffic restrictions for road works or traffic collisions, pick safe speed, travelling time and an appropriate route of their journey.
“The Lithuanian Road Administration has thoroughly planned the process of bringing this project to life. What makes the Traffic Information System special is that it is scalable and can be integrated into other systems, thus further enhancing its functionality. In future this will enable us to, for instance, manage alternate road signs or swap information with other services, issue real-time information to navigation systems. This is a system that has been designed according to the best practices of foreign countries, and its edge makes it on par to many analogous systems in Europe,” said Rokas Šlekys, Director of Fima’s Solutions Department.
“Data stored and analysed by the Traffic Information System are used to generate information of brand new quality or, in other words, develop virtually new layers of information on the roadmap of Lithuania, and both public and business organisations whose business is related to roads or transport as well as every citizen or guest in Lithuania will soon be able to feel the practical benefits that they provide,“ Julius Belickas, Traffic Information System project lead for Affecto Lietuva, said to accentuate the importance of the new system to the public.
