Vector Flow Tiles

The Traffic Vector Flow Tiles API endpoint provides data on zoom levels ranging from 0 to 22.

• For zoom level 0, the world is displayed on a single tile.
• At zoom level 22, the world is divided into 2⁴⁴ tiles. See the Zoom Levels and Tile Grid.

The service delivers traffic flow data packaged in a vector representation of squared sections called vector tiles.

• Each tile includes a pre-defined collection of road shapes with traffic flow data.
• The format of the tile is formally described using the protobuf schema.

It shows either the current speed of traffic on different road segments, or the difference between current speed and the free-flow speed on the road segment.

Tiles resolution

Road geometry is stored as coordinates in the range of 0-4095. Coordinates (0,0) define the top-left corner of the tile.

You can easily run this and other endpoints using the TomTom API Explorer.

1. Go to the TomTom API Explorer page.
2. Click an endpoint.
   1. Click Try it out.
   2. Enter/select all required parameter values and any optional parameter values.
   3. At the bottom of the form, click Execute.
3. Review the Response.

The Vector format is a binary format created by using Google Protocol Buffers to serialize the data according to this defined vector schema.

• The data is mapped to a protobuf layer called "Traffic flow".
• Besides the protobuf layers, the protobuf tags are also used to further describe the traffic.

Currently, the following Traffic flow tags are used.

HTTPS method: GET

Communication by both HTTP and HTTPS is supported.

URL format

For ease of viewing and identification:

• Required constants and parameters are shown in bold text.
• Optional parameters are shown in normal text.

The generic tile call format is as follows:

http|https://baseURL/traffic/map/versionNumber/tile/flow/type/zoom/x/y.format?key=Your_API_Key&roadTypes=[roadTypes]

Example

http://api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/tile/flow/relative/5/4/8.pbf?key=Your_API_Key&roadTypes=[2,4,5]

curl command

curl 'http://api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/tile/flow/relative/5/4/8.pbf?key=Your_API_Key&roadTypes=[2,4,5]'

Request parameters

These elements are used in calls to generate all vector tile layers.

• Required parameters must be used or the call will fail.
• Parameters and values are case-sensitive.
• Optional parameters may be used.
• If there is a default value that will be assumed when an optional parameter is not used, it is shown in the table.

▲ Return to top

Types of traffic flow

There are various types of traffic flow to use.

• absolute: This reflects the absolute speed.
• relative: This is the speed relative to free-flow, highlighting areas of congestion.
• relative-delay:
• The relative speed values are different from the ones for the free-flow. This only highlights areas of congestion.

Host name cycling

Most web browsers have a default limitation on the number of active connections that can be allowed to each host.

• This means if map tiles are being loaded via the api.tomtom.com host name, they will be loaded one at a time.
• A trick that can be used to get around this limitation is to cycle through the hosts we have created as aliases.
• These host names are:
  • a.api.tomtom.com.
  • b.api.tomtom.com.
  • c.api.tomtom.com.
  • d.api.tomtom.com.
• By cycling through these four different host names, the web browser will be tricked into retrieving four map tiles at a time rather than just one.
• This will significantly speed up the performance of map rendering.

For instance, if four map tiles are being requested at zoom level one, you would request the first one as:

http://a.api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/tile/flow/relative/1/0/0.pbf?key=Your_API_Key

The second would be:

http://b.api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/tile/flow/relative/1/0/0.pbf?key=Your_API_Key

and so on up until d.api.tomtom.com. When more than four tiles are being requested, start back again at a.api.tomtom.com.

▲ Return to top

HTTP request headers

The following table lists HTTP request headers of particular interest to clients of the Traffic Vector Flow Tiles API endpoint.

Successful response

The Traffic Vector Flow Tiles API, for a single request, returns a binary response body which must be deserialized by client code generated by the Google Protocol Buffers compiler.

The following examples use a simple textual representation of the serialized binary vector tile data to illustrate the response content.

Example request - Absolute Flow Type

http://api.tomtom.com/map/4/tile/flow/absolute/17/64989/42178.pbf?key=Your_API_Key

Example response - Absolute Flow Type

layer: 0
      name: Traffic flow
      version: 2
      extent: 4096
      keys:
        0: road_type
        1: traffic_level
        2: traffic_road_coverage
        3: left_hand_traffic
      values:
        0: "Major local road" [string]
        1: 0 [double]
        2: "one_side" [string]
        3: 1 [bool]
        4: "Major road" [string]
        5: 45 [double]
        6: 1 [bool]
        7: 50 [double]
        8: 1 [bool]
      feature: 0
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=3](3002 -409,2964 1292,2842 2382)
          LINESTRING[count=3](2842 2382,2964 1292,3002 -409)
        properties:
          road_type="Major local road" [string]
          traffic_level=0 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]
      feature: 1
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=7](4222 4505,4122 4366,3528 3882,3062 3494,2826 2932,2806 2752,2842 2382)
          LINESTRING[count=8](-409 656,-108 810,1260 1620,1832 1914,2842 2382,3792 2644,4400 2770,4505 2783)
        properties:
          road_type="Major road" [string]
          traffic_level=45 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]
      feature: 2
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=7](2842 2382,2806 2752,2826 2932,3062 3494,3528 3882,4122 4366,4222 4505)
          LINESTRING[count=10](4505 2766,4418 2752,3882 2660,3406 2552,2920 2430,2700 2308,2276 2114,1952 1958,940 1430,-409 648)
        properties:
          road_type="Major road" [string]
          traffic_level=50 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]

Example request - Relative Flow Type

http://api.tomtom.com/map/4/tile/flow/relative/17/64989/42178.pbf?key=Your_API_Key

Example response - Relative Flow Type

layer: 0
      name: Traffic flow
      version: 2
      extent: 4096
      keys:
        0: road_type
        1: traffic_level
        2: traffic_road_coverage
        3: left_hand_traffic
      values:
        0: "Major local road" [string]
        1: 0 [double]
        2: "one_side" [string]
        3: 1 [bool]
        4: "Major road" [string]
        5: 0.7 [double]
        6: 1 [bool]
        7: 0.767 [double]
        8: 1 [bool]
        9: 1 [double]
        10: 1 [bool]
      feature: 0
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=3](3002 -409,2964 1292,2842 2382)
          LINESTRING[count=3](2842 2382,2964 1292,3002 -409)
        properties:
          road_type="Major local road" [string]
          traffic_level=0 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]
      feature: 1
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=8](-409 656,-108 810,1260 1620,1832 1914,2842 2382,3792 2644,4400 2770,4505 2783)
        properties:
          road_type="Major road" [string]
          traffic_level=0.7 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]
      feature: 2
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=10](4505 2766,4418 2752,3882 2660,3406 2552,2920 2430,2700 2308,2276 2114,1952 1958,940 1430,-409 648)
        properties:
          road_type="Major road" [string]
          traffic_level=0.767 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]
      feature: 3
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=7](2842 2382,2806 2752,2826 2932,3062 3494,3528 3882,4122 4366,4222 4505)
          LINESTRING[count=7](4222 4505,4122 4366,3528 3882,3062 3494,2826 2932,2806 2752,2842 2382)
        properties:
          road_type="Major local road" [string]
          traffic_level=1 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]

Example request - Relative Delay Flow Type

http://api.tomtom.com/map/4/tile/flow/relative-delay/17/64989/42178.pbf?key=Your_API_Key

Example response - Relative Delay Flow Type

layer: 0
      name: Traffic flow
      version: 2
      extent: 4096
      keys:
        0: road_type
        1: traffic_level
        2: traffic_road_coverage
        3: left_hand_traffic
      values:
        0: "Major local road" [string]
        1: 0 [double]
        2: "one_side" [string]
        3: 1 [bool]
        4: "Major road" [string]
        5: 0.694 [double]
        6: 1 [bool]
        7: 0.767 [double]
        8: 1 [bool]
      feature: 0
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=3](3002 -409,2964 1292,2842 2382)
          LINESTRING[count=3](2842 2382,2964 1292,3002 -409)
        properties:
          road_type="Major local road" [string]
          traffic_level=0 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]
      feature: 1
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=8](-409 656,-108 810,1260 1620,1832 1914,2842 2382,3792 2644,4400 2770,4505 2783)
        properties:
          road_type="Major road" [string]
          traffic_level=0.694 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]
      feature: 2
        id: (none)
        geomtype: linestring
        geometry:
          LINESTRING[count=10](4505 2766,4418 2752,3882 2660,3406 2552,2920 2430,2700 2308,2276 2114,1952 1958,940 1430,-409 648)
        properties:
          road_type="Major road" [string]
          traffic_level=0.767 [double]
          traffic_road_coverage="one_side" [string]
          left_hand_traffic=1 [bool]

Error response

The Traffic Vector Flow Tiles API endpoint for an invalid single request returns a response body in JSON format.

Error response field structure

Error response example

{
  "error" : "Invalid zoom value. Allowed values are .",
  "httpStatusCode" : 400,
  "detailedError" : {
    "code" : "INVALID_REQUEST",
    "message" : "Invalid zoom value. Allowed values are ."
  }
}

▲ Return to top

HTTP response codes

HTTP response headers

The following table lists HTTP response headers of particular interest to clients of the Traffic Vector Flow Tiles API endpoint.