Road information providing server, road information providing system, road information providing method, route search server, route search system, and route search method

摘要

A road information provision system or route search system of this invention comprises a terminal device such as a car navigation device 20 a, portable telephone 20 b, or PC 20 c which specifies routes and issues requests for road information; a VICS center 40 which provides congestion information; a road information provision/route search server 10 which, in response to requests from terminal devices 20 a to 20 c, generates road information based on congestion information from the VICS center 40 , and provides the road information to the terminal devices 20 a to 20 c; a dedicated circuit network 50 which connects the road information provision server 10 and VICS center 40 by dedicated circuits; a network 30 which connects the terminal devices 20 a to 20 c and road information provision/route search server 10 to enable communication; and a GPS 60 which provides position information. By this means, a road information provision system is provided which is capable of determining shortest-route information, in terms of either distance or of time, and of determining congestion information over all legs of a route, in route searches over long distances. Moreover, a route search system is provided which can provide the same route information even for repeated requests for the same route at different times, without managing search results by user on the server side.