Liikennetiedot

Liikennetiedot is a Finnish term that translates to "traffic information" or "transport data" and refers to data describing the state, movement and management of road, rail, maritime and air transport. It includes real-time information on traffic flow, incidents, roadworks, public transport schedules and vehicle locations as well as historical and planned transport data used for analysis and planning.

Sources of liikennetiedot include road sensors, cameras, automatic number plate recognition, floating car data from GPS-enabled devices, public transport vehicle tracking, weather systems and user reports. Data collection may be continuous or event-driven and is often aggregated and filtered by transport authorities or private service providers.

Common formats and standards used to exchange liikennetiedot are GTFS for public transport schedules, DATEX II for traffic management messaging in Europe, and various proprietary APIs. Open data initiatives and public APIs have increased availability for third-party navigation apps, traffic control centres and research institutions.

Uses range from route guidance and congestion management to traffic forecasting, infrastructure planning and road safety analysis. Real-time feeds support emergency response and dynamic traffic control, while historical datasets inform policy and investment decisions.

Considerations around liikennetiedot include data quality, timeliness, standardization and privacy, especially when location-based or personal data are involved. National agencies, municipal transport authorities and commercial platforms typically collaborate to produce, validate and distribute this information.