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PTV xServer: Unrealistic traveltimes in route calculation

Updated

Symptom

When calculating a route to a segment temporarily closed due to roadworks or similar events, PTV xServer may return an unrealistically long travel time.

Unlike other products (e.g. Map&Guide Internet), where no route is returned in such cases, xServer does calculate a route — but it assumes the vehicle waits until the closure ends.

 

Cause

This behavior occurs when:

  • The destination is located on a temporarily closed road segment.

  • The system determines that the segment will reopen in the future and includes a delay in the travel time accordingly.

Example: Traffic Events in Response

When calling TRAFFIC_EVENTS for the route, you may see a result like this:

"events": [
  {
    "latitude": 52.479051174,
    "longitude": 13.432830347,
    "startsAt": "2023-09-13T16:15:34+02:00",
    "distanceFromStart": 0,
    "travelTimeFromStart": 0,
    "traffic": {
      "delay": 28613,
      "description": "Rollbergstraße eastbound at Berlin closed",
      "accessType": "ENTER"
    }
  },
  {
    "latitude": 52.479272211,
    "longitude": 13.434499653,
    "startsAt": "2023-09-14T00:13:09+02:00",
    "distanceFromStart": 116,
    "travelTimeFromStart": 28655,
    "traffic": {
      "delay": 28613,
      "description": "Rollbergstraße eastbound at Berlin closed",
      "accessType": "EXIT"
    }
  }
]

This represents:

  • A delay of ~28,600 seconds (~8 hours), which causes the inflated travel time.

  • The closure begins and ends at specific timestamps, and the routing engine "waits" accordingly.

 

Resolution

Workaround: Adjust the Travel Time

If you need more realistic travel times, you can:

  1. Extract the trafficDelay value from the route result.

  2. Subtract this delay from the total travel time.

     Note: This workaround may distort the route's realism if multiple traffic events are present, as not all delays are due to closures.

 Recommendation

For production use, especially in critical planning scenarios:

  • Consider checking traffic events on the destination segment before routing.

  • Or, if temporary closures should be avoided entirely, exclude traffic from the routing calculation using a different profile.

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