NTL Record

Title Estimation of Traffic Variables Using Point Processing Techniques
Record ID 49890
Personal Name
Creator
Lopez, R. L.; Houpt, P. K.
Source 80p. in various pagings
Corporate Creator Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Corporate
Contributor
John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
Publisher United States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Special Programs Administration
Publication Date 19780501
Language English
Abstract An alternative approach to estimating aggregate traffic variables on freeways--spatial mean velocity and density--is presented. Vehicle arrival times at a given location on a roadway, typically a presence detector, are regarded as a point or counting Poisson process whose rate is a function of the state of the traffic at every instant of time. Moreover, the traffic state is modeled as a finite-state Markov chain. A sequential point process filter, optimum in the mean-squared error sense, is designed to estimate the state from observations of the vehicle arrival-time sequence. Different possibilities for incorporating potential additional information such as speed and headway are explored. Parameter values for the underlying Markov chain are obtained via a maximum likelihood estimator. Qualitative behavior of the proposed algorithms is studied with simulated traffic flow data from both macroscopic and microscopic models.
Rosap ID dot:11301
Rosap URL https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/11301
TRT Terms Algorithms; Estimates; Freeways; Highway traffic; Markov chains; Mathematical models; Stochastic processes; Traffic control; Traffic density; Traffic engineering; Traffic flow; Traffic measurement; Traffic simulation; Traffic speed; Vehicle detectors
Classification NTL - OPERATIONS AND TRAFFIC CONTROLS - Traffic Flow;
NTL - OPERATIONS AND TRAFFIC CONTROLS - OPERATIONS AND TRAFFIC CONTROLS;
NTL - HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION - HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION
Geographical
Coverage
United States
Report Number DOT-TSC-RSPA-78-9
Resource type Tech Report
URL https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/49000/49800/49890/DOT-TSC-RSPA-78-09.pdf
Format PDF
Database NTL Digital Repository