On the weekend we head up to the Mondial du Ski at les Deux Alpes we have learned of a new system that will give drivers real time information on journeys across the Oisans massif and along the often gridlocked N91 which leads from Grenoble to l’Alpe d’Huez, les Deux Alpes, la Grave and Serre Chevalier.
The system will be particularly welcomed as Grenoble’s tiny St Geoirs airport has become the latest low-cost battleground bringing tens of thousands of winter sports fans from the United Kingdom as well as charters from Germany and the East Europe and Russia.
The TEMPO system, due to go fully live in time for the busy February school holiday period consists of three message boards situated on the 47 Km stretch of the N91 from Grenoble to the valley town of Bourg d’Oisans. The system is the first of its kind in France and uses a system of 5 cameras which read number plates to calculate journey times (and maybe speeding fines?). The system was beta tested in April and the calculated times were accurate to within 2 minutes.