TN-ITS GO; Ireland's steps towards a harmonised European Service for fresh and accurate Road-Network Map Data

In January 2018, TN-ITS GO was launched in Ireland, and in 15 other EU states, in the second stage of research and development into a European wide service to link road agencies, organisations and operators with the mapmakers. The core objective is to enable a service that will make fresh, accurate and important map data available to intelligent transport services at all times. Various elements of this project are building on previous work that, for example, introduced a European wide Road-Data Standard, Rosetta, where it is being used, developed and matured by iterative involvement by various mapmaker stakeholders and more and more EU states that are working towards its implementation. Principally, TN-ITS wishes to facilitate and foster the exchange of ITS-related spatial road data between road authorities, as trusted data providers, and data users, such as map makers and other parties. TN-ITS is concerned with the exchange of information on changes in static road attributes. Static meaning that the attributes are of a more or less permanent nature, even though they may sometimes change, such as speed limits. It is important that digital maps for ITS are highly up to date for attributes that are critical in terms of safety and efficiency. The map providers cannot easily keep their maps up to date for such attributes, while up-to-date maps are and will be a key asset for existing and future ITS applications, especially Autonomous Vehicle technology. One solution is to retrieve the information on changes from the road authorities as they are typically empowered to enact and make such changes. As they create the changes, they are the most efficient and immediate source for such information. This requires digital storage and maintenance on the side of road authorities, and some kind of flagging of changes. Towards this, in 2017, Ireland became one of 9 EU states to get involved in the initial prototype implementation of a TN-ITS service for Ireland. At this projects conclusion a prototype road-network data update platform had been developed that could serve out attribute changes to the TN-ITS standard for mapmaker consumption. This project and its prototype outputs was only possible because of the significant help and provision of data by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), with TEN-T data; the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), with Galway and Monaghan data; and with important input on legislation, licensing and state-of-the-art status from Ordnance Survey Ireland, National Transport Authority and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport