Patent ID: 7447588

Claim:
A method of collecting real-time traffic data using moving vehicles and providing the real-time traffic data to an occupant of a vehicle traveling on a continental roadway network, the method comprising steps of: partitioning a digitized continental roadway network having a plurality of nodes and links that define a digitized representation of the continental roadway network into a plurality of digitized roadway subnetworks; and instantiating one or more traffic managers in an onboard vehicle navigation device for each one of a subset of digitized roadway subnetworks that lie in a vicinity of a current position of the vehicle to collect traffic and provide relevant real-time traffic data to the occupant of the vehicle wherein the step of partitioning the network comprises a step of defining, as an outer belt running approximately parallel to each demarcation line on each side of each demarcation line, an instantiating/terminating threshold (ITT), the ITT comprising a plurality of lifeline nodes each having a list of neighboring regions for instantiating traffic managers for subnetworks corresponding to neighboring regions that become relevant and for terminating traffic managers for subnetworks of regions that become no longer relevant.