Introduction
iNode's Route Monitoring Module is a core component of SMATS' analytics platform, purpose-built for monitoring and analyzing travel conditions across your road network in real time. The module continuously processes GPS probe data to surface route-level metrics, including travel times, speeds, delay, and data confidence, so you can understand not just how your network is performing right now, but how that compares to free flow and historically typical conditions. From identifying unusual delays as they develop to benchmarking long-term corridor performance, Route Monitoring gives you the visibility you need to make timely, evidence-based decisions.
Metrics and use case
Metric
The Route Monitoring Module delivers the following metrics:
- Travel time:
- Current real-time travel time (live)
- Free flow travel time (no-traffic conditions) (live)
- Typical travel time (historical average for the time of day)
- Delay:
- Delay relative to free flow, in minutes and as a percentage of free flow travel time (live)
- Unusual delay relative to typical conditions, in minutes and as a percentage of typical travel time (live)
- Speed:
- Current speed - both route level and segment level (live)
- Typical speed (historical average for the time of day)
Use case
Understanding live and historical travel conditions is essential for effective traffic management, planning, and operational response. Route Monitoring equips transportation professionals, planners, and consultants with the ability to answer critical questions about network performance across a wide range of scenarios, such as:
- Monitoring active congestion — Tracking live delay and travel time deviations to identify and respond to developing incidents or peak-period bottlenecks.
- Benchmarking route performance — Comparing current travel times and speeds against free flow and typical baselines to understand how a corridor is performing relative to its norm.
- Supporting signal retiming and operational adjustments — Using travel time and delay data to assess whether current operations are meeting performance targets.
- Conducting before-and-after studies — Evaluating the impact of infrastructure changes or policy interventions by comparing conditions over time.
- Reporting on network reliability — Communicating route performance and delay trends to stakeholders using consistent, probe-data-backed metrics.
- Prioritizing investment — Using persistent delay patterns to inform where capital investment or operational changes are most needed.
Key components and workflows
The Route Monitoring Module makes it easier to analyze various metrics through a guided workflow, ensuring flexibility while keeping studies easy to set up:
- Route Selection: Select the geographic boundary for your study, from specific segments to individual cities to entire regions.
- Date range and time set selection: Define precise ranges to capture short-term events or long-term patterns.
- Result delivery: Access comprehensive result pages with clear summaries, visualizations, and data exports for deeper analysis.
Data sources
At its core, iNode’s Route Monitoring Module is powered by high-resolution GPS probe data. Data is collected from:
- Connected GPS devices
- Embedded vehicle telematics systems
- GPS-enabled mobile phones
This data is continuously archived, creating a robust historical traffic database. The result is a rich, scalable foundation for travel time, speed and volume studies that combine real-time insights with long-term context, making the Route Monitoring module a key component of iNode - an advanced traffic data analytics platform.
Data availability and updates
Traffic Stats data is continuously updated as it moves through iNode’s processing pipeline, where it is cleaned, aggregated, and validated to ensure consistent, reliable results. Data is typically available with a one-day lag, meaning studies can be submitted for as recent as yesterday or today; however, to achieve optimal sample sizes and the highest data quality, we recommend waiting up to 72 hours before submitting a study, as some GPS data providers deliver data with delays beyond 24 hours.