Mar/April 2009

Routing and scheduling software from Paragon Software Systems can now take account of average road speeds.

The development arises from a decision to offer ITIS road speed data with the system. ITIS data is derived from records gathered from 200,000 vehicles travelling around the UK.

Paragon says the speed data provides a much truer reflection of the real travel times. Previously its system was only able to work on average speeds based on a road classification such as urban motorway or rural B-road, with regional adjustments.

Under the ITIS-based system, Paragon can take account of the average road speed in each direction at road link level (that is, with a high degree of granularity). The speed is based on a history of observations of vehicles travelling on that road link.

Paragon says the resulting schedules should be more acceptable to drivers and more accurate for customers. It adds that less time should be needed to 'calibrate' Paragon systems, so initial implementation time should be shorter.