Programs & Labs
Estimating and Measuring Arterial Travel Time and Delay
Principal Investigator:
- Henry Liu, Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering
Project Summary
With the increasing congestion, the demand for real-time traveler information is also increasing. Much of the Twin Cities Metropolitan area freeway system is already well-instrumented to provide travelers with real-time congestion levels and travel time estimates. However, this type of traveler information is not currently available for arterial roadways. This was mainly due to the lack of reliable data collection systems for arterials. With the successful deployment the SMART-SIGNAL (Systematic Monitoring of Arterial Road Traffic Signals) system developed by the PI, now it is possible to collect high resolution traffic signal data at intersections. Using the high-resolution traffic data, vehicle trajectories can be reconstructed to estimate travel times for departure times sometime in the past. Since these travel times are from the past, they do not accurately represent the current traffic conditions on the arterial. Using this real-time information and historical data patterns, it is possible to predict travel times for departure times at present and in short-term future. The objective of this research project is to develop a consistent method to determine arterial travel time in congested corridors. The research methodology will be evaluated using 11 intersections on France Ave and 6 intersections on TH55, where the SMART-SIGNAL system is currently deployed.
Sponsors:
- ITS Institute (RITA)