April 29, 2026
TISA’s road ahead for the RTTI 5-Star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating Session during ITS Istanbul Congress 2026
This was a very insightful and engaging session during the ITS European Congress, hence we are sharing a somewhat longer post than usual.
The session opened by TISA’s Executive Director Matthias Unbehaun brought together key stakeholder groups needed for delivery of real-time traffic information (RTTI).
Stephanie Chaufton presented the needs for, and objectives of the 5-Star Rating Framework, reflecting on ITS data fairness, reproducibility, transparency and compliance. These four pillars need to cover the entire information chain from content detection and processing to service provisioning and presentation to the end users.
Bringing together key stakeholders is one of the key parts of TISA’s raison d’être. In September 2025, two of TISA members, TomTom and Danish Road Directorate - Vejdirektoratet, joined forces in piloting the 5-Star Rating for Road Works information. In the session, they shared their experiences.
Douglas Gilmour from TomTom’s highlighted key learnings:
- 5-Star specification allows clear feedback on where the rating is low
- FCD-based checks are useful and scalable, but have their limits, and
- Further clarification of certain rules in the Rating methodology was needed.
Charlotte Holstrøm from Vejdirektoratet on the other side, shared her perspective from public road authority perspective. While they have been working on improving data and information provision to road users for a long time, Charlotte highlighted that the 5-Star Rating delivered more specific results than their earlier investigations. Location referencing was less of an issue, timeliness was better while they also discovered and corrected a technical issue. The pilot was also highly valuable as it enabled Vejdirektoratet to gain insights into how service providers process the data from road authorities.
Xabier Gago from Xouba presented findings from a similar pilot on Speed Limits in Madrid reviewing more than 8200 speed signals. The main conclusion is that the accuracy of speed signs provided is generally satisfactory while one could aim to automatically map 100% of the speed signs.
Matthias Defée from GEWI AG focused on the data processing chain for Road Works: Planning, Publishing and Execution. In each of these steps, clear measures can be taken to ensure the correct information is passed on in a timely fashion such that each driver is informed in due time, avoiding dangerous situations on the road caused drivers encountering road works as a surprise.
If that was not enough, we also want to highlight that TISA published an introduction to Functional Road Classifications, which is referenced by the RTTI 5-Star Requirements Specification. The document is freely available on the TISA website:
https://tisa.org/wp-content/uploads/FRCWG26001_FRC-Overview_v1.0-1.pdf
Much more to come! Follow, Like and Join our work!
