Usage guidelines and limitations

This document outlines the Roads Management Insights usage guidelines for you to use the service and meet usage requirements. It also outlines the known limitations to help you work effectively with the current offering.

Usage guidelines

Review the following guidelines to get optimal service value while adhering to policies regarding eligibility, permitted use, data access scope, and compliant route selection.

1. Eligibility & verification
   • Eligible entities: Access to the Roads Management Insights service is specifically intended for public sector entities and infrastructure managers. This includes, but is not limited to, private and public data authorities, public utility companies, cities, and regions.
   • Verification process: Be prepared for an eligibility check to confirm your status. If accessing Roads Management Insights through indirect channels (e.g., partners), confirmation from the official end-user account may be required.
2. Permitted use cases
   • Goal alignment: Roads Management Insights data is designed to support initiatives focused on improving road network safety and efficiency, effective management of public infrastructure, and contributions to pollution reduction. A broad interpretation aligned with these core goals is encouraged.
   • Example applications:
     • Identifying issues with road network.
     • Monitoring impact of interventions.
     • Identifying traffic patterns.
3. Understanding your data access scope
   • Jurisdictional coverage: Your primary data access covers roads within your officially managed territory.
   • Adjacent area requests: You can request access to limited adjacent areas, such as a buffer of up to 20km, if necessary to monitor direct impacts on your core network. Submitted buffer zones require verification and should generally not exceed approximately 30 km from your core jurisdiction.
   • Road utility limitations: For privacy reasons, and to ensure good quality and privacy, the service does not share information for routes with low traffic volume. When a route is created, the Roads Selection API service first verifies that the traffic volume for that route exceeds a minimum threshold. If this threshold is not met, traffic information for that route won't be published.
4. Selecting compliant road segments
   • To make sure your selected routes meet the necessary data quality and utility requirements:
     • High-traffic roads: Selecting short segments on high-traffic roads is typically acceptable.
     • Less busy roads: For roads with lower traffic volumes, make sure your defined segments include intersections within the stretch. This helps them pass the necessary utility checks for data quality.
5. Ongoing compliance & monitoring
   • Google performs ongoing programmatic checks to make sure selected routes comply with both Jurisdiction and Road Utility guidelines.
     • Low traffic volume evaluations:
       • All published routes undergo quarterly evaluations for traffic volume to make sure they are compliant with privacy thresholds.
       • If a route is determined to have low traffic during an evaluation, a warning message is issued in the BigQuery routes_status table.
       • Routes detected with low traffic for four consecutive quarters are classified as invalid, and the publication of their traffic information ceases. Invalidated routes remain subject to future evaluations and can be reclassified as valid if traffic volume exceeds the threshold.
       • Route validation status is available in the BigQuery routes_status table or can be queried through the get-selected-route method using the selected_route_id.
     • Jurisdiction validation:
       • After a route is created and before any information is retrieved, Google validates that the route's coordinates fall within your managed jurisdiction.
       • If a route is partially or completely outside the defined jurisdiction, it is marked as invalid, and no information is retrieved.

Known limitations

This section details current known limitations of Roads Management Insights and details on how to work within these limitations.

1. Historical data availability
   • Data collection start: Data collection and caching for your selected routes only begin after you define and submit them to the Roads Management Insights system.
   • Guidance: Allow for an initial period after defining routes for sufficient historical data to accumulate, which is necessary for comprehensive analysis.
2. Understanding route behavior (dynamic versus persisted)
   • RMI's core functionality: Roads Management Insights primarily leverages dynamic routing, utilizing near real-time traffic information to provide the most accurate current travel times (ETA) and speed data.
   • Persisting routes: You can define specific routes for ongoing monitoring using waypoints. Google recommends following best practices for waypoint selection to accurately define your intended paths.
   • Important consideration: Because real-world conditions are dynamic, a route path defined by static waypoints might occasionally become unavailable. This can occur due to unexpected dynamic events such as temporary road closures. Plan accordingly for potential temporary gaps in data on specific persisted paths.
3. Data accuracy on low-traffic roads
   • Expected accuracy: Data accuracy may naturally be lower on roads with very infrequent traffic. This is due to fewer real-time data points being available for such segments.
   • Guidance: For the most reliable analytics, Google recommends focusing your route selection on roads with sufficient utility (higher traffic volumes). Alternatively, make sure that segments selected on less busy roads include intersections, as outlined in the "Road Restrictions" section. This limitation directly informs the route selection restrictions mentioned previously.

Additional usage information

Review the following terms to understand how the service interacts with other products and how data is handled.

• Customer's use of BigQuery, Cloud PubSub, and Analytics Hub is subject to Customer's separate agreement with Google Cloud, including any Fees incurred as a result of the use BigQuery, Cloud PubSub, or Analytics Hub.
• For clarity, Google Maps Content is not "Customer Data" as defined in Google Cloud agreement. Use of the Google Maps Content is subject to the terms of the Maps Agreement.
• Segments. A Customer's access is limited to road networks that they directly manage or that directly impact a public utility they manage. Upon request, a Customer may be granted access to roads in adjacent areas if those roads directly influence their primary network or managed infrastructure. Customer may not access Google Maps Content that is or could be associated with any roads that have limited volume in traffic (e.g., residential areas). For roads with moderate utilization, Google Maps Content will be only available for routes with greater lengths.