Communications of the ACM
sing Real-Time Road Traffic Data to Evaluate Congestion
Credit: London Evening Standard
Cambridge University researchers are working on the Transport Information Monitoring Environment (TIME) project, which aims to provide data that enables businesses, government, and the public to make better use of roads.
The TIME project has re-purposed data sources from Cambridgeshire County Council and Stagecoach, adding them to a system that can transport, collect, and analyze data. The researchers collected bus position data because the movement of buses gives a good idea of the traffic conditions in general. The researchers also collected real-time traffic light data using the Split Cycle Offset Optimization Technique and demonstrated how that data can be combined with bus data to give buses priority at traffic lights.
By archiving the data and analyzing it statistically, TIME researchers can determine the effects of exceptional circumstances, such as scheduled work by utilities, accidents in the city, or closure of the surrounding roads on vehicle speeds throughout the city. "Our approach has helped us both quantify the effects of congestion on urban road networks and visualize the consequences in a variety of formats," says Cambridge researcher Richard Gibbens.
From University of Cambridge
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