research report

Online Freeway Corridor Deployment of Anonymous Vehicle Tracking for Real Time Traffic Performance

Areas of Expertise

Infrastructure Delivery, Operations, & Resilience Intelligent Transportation Systems, Emerging Technologies, & Big Data

Abstract

The need for advanced, accurate and comprehensive traffic performance measures in increasingly saturated traffic networks is stretching the effectiveness of existing conventional point-based loop detector traffic data. This study had two objectives. The first was the evaluation of two emerging technologies – Sensys Magnetometers and Blade Inductive Signature System – to assess their potential in providing advanced traffic performance measures using vehicle signature data. The second was the expansion and deployment of the Real-time Traffic Performance Measurement System (RTPMS) to provide section-based traffic performance measures under actual operating conditions. As a part of this deployment, a communications framework was implemented to provide real-time communications of signature feature data between field units and a central vehicle re-identification server. A new improved online interactive web-user interface was also developed to provide users with real-time as well as historical traffic performance measurements.