Congestion is a major problem in large urbanised areas. Intelligent Transport Solutions aim to reduce this problem. Generally, traffic is monitored using sensors, this data is processed, a traffic state is estimated and a control measure is computed and implemented. The availability and quality of the data and the processing time of the algorithms are possible limiting factors in this pattern. This paper investigates what the data requirements for different traffic control measures are. In particular, we focus on the relationship between the spatial scale of the control measure and the time delay between the measurement and the control action, the latency. A set of 17 applications shows that the larger the spatial scale of the control measure, the larger the latency can be. This relationship can be used to determine the latency quality criteria for a certain application. On the other hand, it can be analysed which type of applications are possible when data with a specific quality can be collected. The latter analysis is carried out for a province in the Netherlands. This analysis furthermore shows the difference between the availability in terms of information and communication technology (ICT) and useful data for applications. In particular, if no vehicles pass, the ICT systems are available, but no realistic measurements are produced.