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Traffic API
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Vector Flow Tiles

 

Service version: 4
Last edit: 2020.11.06

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Purpose

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

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

Run this endpoint

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.

Vector format

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.

Tag Description
road_type The tag value describes the road type.
Allowed values:
  • Motorway
  • International road
  • Major road
  • Secondary road
  • Connecting road
  • Major local road
  • Local road
  • Minor local road
  • Non public road
  • Parking road
traffic_level The tag value indicates the traffic speed.
  • Absolute values in kph (kilometers per hour) are used when the traffic type is set to absolute.
  • Fractional values are used when the traffic type is set to relative or relative-delay.
See the traffic flow types section for details.
Allowed values:
  • Fractional value: 0.00 - 1.00
  • Absolute value: Greater than or equal to 0.
traffic_road_coverage The tag value describes if the traffic is assigned to the whole road (one way road), or only to one side (two-way road).
Allowed values:
  • one_side
  • full
left_hand_traffic The tag presence indicates if the road has left hand traffic.
If the tag is not present the road has right hand traffic.
Allowed values: true
road_closure The tag presence indicates if the road is closed to traffic.
If the tag is not present the road is not closed and is passable.
Allowed values: true

Request data

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 -XGET '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.
Required parameters
Parameter Description
baseURL
string 		The base URL for calling TomTom services. See the Host Name Cycling section for details on aliases.
Value: api.tomtom.com
[a|b|c|d].api.tomtom.com
versionNumber
string 		The version of the service to call.
Value: The current value is 4.
type Types of traffic flow. See the Traffic flow types section for details.
Value:
  • absolute
  • relative
  • relative-delay
zoom
integer 		The zoom level of a tile to be rendered.
Value: 0..22
x
integer 		The x coordinate of a tile on the zoom grid.
Value: 0..2 zoom -1
y
integer 		The y coordinate of a tile on the zoom grid.
Value: 0..2 zoom -1
format
string 		The format of the Response.
Value: pbf (Protocolbuffer Binary Format)
key
string 		An API Key valid for the requested service.
Value: Your valid API Key.
Optional parameters
Parameter Description
[roadTypes]
array 		The list of values representing the road types, which are going to be displayed on a particular zoom level according to the mapping:
  • 0: Motorway
  • 1: International road
  • 2: Major road
  • 3: Secondary road
  • 4: Connecting road
  • 5: Major local road
  • 6: Local road
  • 7: Minor local road
  • 8: Other roads (Non public road, Parking road, etc.)
The list of values must be enclosed in square brackets [ ], and each value must be separated by a comma.
The parameter behaves as a filter, narrowing down the road types displayed for a particular zoom level.
If the array of parameters is empty, an empty tile will be sent.
Value: Square brackets enclosed list.
[trafficLevelStep]
positive float 		The step value, describing the minimum difference between values of traffic_level protobuf tag.
For example:
  • in case of relative traffic type, for trafficLevelStep equal to 0.1, the allowed values of traffic_level are: 0.0, 0.1, 0.2..1.0
  • in case of absolute traffic type, for trafficLevelStep equal to 10, the allowed values of traffic_level are: 0, 10, 20, etc.
Value:
  • for relative and relative-delay traffic types: 0.0 < trafficLevelStep < 1.0
  • for absolute traffic type: 0 < trafficLevelStep
[margin]
fractional float 		The size of tile margin, relative to the tile size.
Value: 0.0..0.1
Default value: 0.1
[tags]
array 		The list of the values representing the available tags in the tile:
  • road_type
  • traffic_level
  • traffic_road_coverage
  • left_hand_traffic
  • road_closure
By default, all the tags are attached to the tile geometry. See the Vector format for details.
  • The list of the values must be enclosed in square brackets [ ], and each value must be separated by a comma.
  • The parameter behaves as a filter by narrowing down the list of tags enclosed in each tile. It also allows a decrease in the size of the tile.
  • If the array of parameters is empty, only the geometry will be sent.
Value: Square brackets enclosed list.

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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.

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HTTP Request headers

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

Required headers
Note: There are no required headers in this endpoint.
Optional headers
Parameter Description
Accept-Encoding Contains the content encoding (usually a compression algorithm), that the client is able to understand.
Value: gzip
If-None-Match Contains an identifier for a specific version of resource. The server will send back the requested resource, with a 200 HTTP status code, only if it doesn't have an ETag matching the given one.
Value: <string>
Tracking-ID Specifies an identifier for the Request.
  • It can be used to trace a call.
  • The value must match the regular expression '^[a-zA-Z0-9-]{1,100}$'.
  • An example of the format that matches this regular expression is a UUID (e.g., 9ac68072-c7a4-11e8-a8d5-f2801f1b9fd1). For details check RFC 4122.
  • If specified, it is replicated in the Tracking-ID Response header.
  • It is only meant to be used for support and does not involve tracking of you or your users in any form.
Value: <string>

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Response data

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 Responses 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]

HTTP Response codes

Code Meaning and Possible Causes
200 OK
400 Bad request:
  • The combination of layer, type, and query parameters is not supported.
  • zoom n is out of range [0,22]: The requested zoom level is out of the possible range.
  • x n is out of range [0,2zoom-1]: The requested x coordinate is out of the possible range.
  • y n is out of range [0,2zoom-1]: The requested y coordinate is out of the possible range.
403 Forbidden: The supplied API Key is not valid for this Request.
405 Method Not Allowed: The provided HTTP Request method is known by the server, but is not supported by the target resource.
429 Too Many Requests: Too many requests were sent in a given amount of time for the supplied API Key.
500 Internal Server Error: There is a problem with the TomTom Traffic Vector Flow Tiles API endpoint.
503 Service currently unavailable.
596 Service Not Found: Unknown version of the service.

HTTP Response headers

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

Header Description
Access-Control-Allow-Origin Indicates that cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) is allowed.
Value: * Universal.
Allow Lists the set of supported HTTP methods. The header is sent in case a 405 HTTP Response Code is returned.
Value: GET, HEAD
Content-Encoding Indicates which encodings were applied to the Response body.
Value: gzip
Content-Length Contains information about the size of the Response body.
Value: decimal number
Content-Type Indicates the media type of the resource returned.
Value: image/pbf
Date Contains the date and time at which the message was originated.
Value: http-date
ETag Contains an identifier for a specific version of resource.
Value: W/"2fdbd61f30456"
Expires Contains the date after which the Response is considered outdated.
Value: http-date
Tracking-ID An identifier for the Request.
  • If the Tracking-ID header was specified in the Request, it is replicated in the Response.
  • Otherwise, it is generated automatically by the service. For details check RFC 4122.
  • It is only meant to be used for support and does not involve tracking of you or your users in any form.
Value: <string>

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