Warsaw Moving into ITS Arena
IVsource.net
31 May 2001

While not yet a permanent resident of the Intelligent Vehicle community, Warsaw's recently launched initiative to disseminate information on real-time traffic conditions is certainly a step towards more advanced vehicle-highway systems.  Thanks to Mr. Frickiewicz for telling IVsource about his initiative.

Since the middle of August 2000, Korkonet has been under implementation in Warsaw, Poland.  This information service aims to monitor certain locations within the city that bear the most intense traffic ... and where traffic jams are most frequent.

The project centers around the ongoing launch of the www.korkonet.pl service, which allows viewers to check current traffic situations at major intersections and traffic hot spots.  Critical locations throughout the Capital will be monitored by cameras, and the images delivered via TCP/IP (Internet protocol) to www.korkonet.pl, where anyone with access to an online computer can, for example, check their route home from work to preview exactly how bad the trip is likely to be.

Korkonet is, at the moment, an actual incorporated enterprise, and is responsible for the design and development of the entire computer and video network behind the plan.  The company plans to concentrate first on a user base of regular commuters who would check the service before driving in or out of Warsaw; the next step would be to deliver information to these same users while they are already caught in congestion, to assist them in deciding on alternate routes.  The en-route traffic information is made possible through the increasing prevalence of wireless data-compatible phones in Poland.  This next tier of applications will be made available to users of GSM (Group Systeme Mobile) mobile telephones that support WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and SMS (Simple Messaging Service).  The system would hold profiles for users that specify their default driving routes, and would allow queries on other routes.

To date, Korkonet has introduced the InfoKorek email service, which will provide a foundation for development of the software for mobile equipment. Each InfoKorek user can register and define his or her own profile, specifying what types of information would be received in a daily email report.  Intially, users will be able to choose the time of message delivery and the specific route through Warsaw to be traveled.

Quality of data is bolstered through an innovative partnership with the municipal taxi corporation - Miejskie Przedsiêbiorstwo Taksówkowe Sp. z o.o. (www.taximpt.com.pl), which has the largest vehicle fleet operating in the area -- approximately 1500 drivers -- as well as with the Municipal Roads Administration (Public Works) in Warsaw.

So far, all text used in Korkonet services is in Polish, but the service should have universal appeal, relying as it does on video images linked to a map of the city.  (A picture is worth a thousand words in any language!)  The main page at Korkonet shows a stylized plan of the central city, with cameras labeled by location and the direction in which they are facing, indicated with a red arrow.  Users simply click on the view they'd like to see, which appears in a pop up window.

And the best part about the whole thing: all Korkonet services are currently free of charge.

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For More Information ...

... contact Marcin Frickiewicz, CEO of Korkonet, at korkonet@korkonet.pl.

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