Kinematic Equation-Based Vehicle Queue Location Estimation Method for Signalized Intersections Using Mobile Sensor Data

This article presents methods to estimate the location of a vehicle in the queue based on the vehicle's travel time traversing a signalized intersection. The methods focus on the queue discharging process, and calculate the location (in the queue) and acceleration rate of the vehicle simultaneously using kinematic equations. If such location information can be calculated for multiple sampled vehicles in a cycle, the dynamic profile of queue length of the cycle can be estimated. By using travel times, the methods can be applied to data collected via many newly emerged traffic data collection systems such as mobile sensors. The proposed methods are tested using data from simulation, a field experiment, and the Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM), and are compared with a previously developed queue length method.