System for determining traffic information

1. A system for determining traffic information, the system comprising:

a terminal carried along in a vehicle, said terminal having:

a position determination facility for determining a vehicle position and a driving direction of the vehicle in a road network;

a memory for storing reference positions defined by location coordinates; and

a processing facility which works together with said position determination facility and said memory, said processing facility comparing a specific position of the vehicle with stored reference positions for determining whether the vehicle has passed one of the reference positions, a reference position is defined by a safety line running through the location coordinates thereof, wherein the safety line is defined by a reference driving direction for vehicles assigned to the reference position of a carriageway and runs at right angles to this, wherein said processing facility being embodied to determine whether the vehicle has traversed the safety line, to compare a driving direction of the vehicle determined with a traversing of a determined safety line with stored reference driving directions and to evaluate the traversing of the determined safety line as the vehicle passes the reference position defined by the safety line, wherein a passing of the reference position is excluded if the safety line was traversed by the vehicle in a driving direction which deviates from the reference driving direction.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the safety line is defined by a safety line length assigned to the reference position of the carriageway.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein said terminal has a signaling facility which works together with said processing facility, said signaling facility is embodied, after defining that the vehicle has passed the reference position, to output a message having the location coordinates, a passing time instant and identification data of said terminal.

4. The system according to claim 3 , further comprising a traffic control center assigned to the road network for further processing messages, wherein said terminal has a communication facility for a wireless transmission of messages output to said traffic control center.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the reference positions stored in said memory are assigned message attributes containing at least one of a type, an address, a content or a cycle of a message to be output.

6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the reference positions can be added or deleted by said traffic control center by means of said communication facility in said memory of said terminal or defining features and message attributes thereof can be changed.

7. The system according to claim 4 , wherein said traffic control center is:

a toll control center for collecting road use charges in the road network, wherein chargeable stretches of road are assigned the reference positions; or

a traffic management control center for determining travel times in the road network, wherein end points of stretches of road are assigned the reference positions; or

a control center for emergency vehicles for their prioritization to traffic signal-control nodal points of the road network, wherein accesses to the nodal points are assigned the reference positions; or

a control center for local public transport vehicles for activating passenger information facilities, wherein connecting roads between stations of the vehicle are assigned the reference positions.