Travel time system by using vehicle information and communication system (VICS)

Aomori Prefecture has plans to operate a vehicle information and communication system (VlCS) to promote the universal traffic management system (UTMS) that is supported by the National Police Agency (NPA) for the fiscal year 2000. The VICS provides motorists with congestion information, predicted travel time, and other useful information. The predicted travel time is originally provided to motorists by utilizing two-way communication of infrared beacons, which predicts travel times based upon uplink information from each vehicle. However, travel time may not be able to be predicted at the first stage of its operation due to the small amount of uplink information because there are few vehicles equipped with units for the VICS service. Therefore, Aomori prefecture has plans to predict and provide travel times based upon vehicle detectors instead of the VICS, until there is enough uplink information collected from vehicles with the VICS units.