A method and a device for providing traffic information for a given vehicle in a road network whereby, starting with a given starting location and starting time, current and forecast traffic data are determined at a traffic center and prepared in such fashion that they can be transmitted to a given vehicle. Traffic data present at the traffic center, which include at least the current and forecast functional values of a traffic-dependent cost function for the individual route paths, is used to calculate, as a function of the starting location and the starting time, a cost function optimized route to each route path. A corresponding arrival time is then determined to each route path. The cost function value that belongs to each determined arrival time is then selected. The cost function values thus selected are prepared, if necessary, with additional traffic data as traffic information that can be transmitted.