Realtime Intersection Delay Monitoring Using Existing Vehicle Detection System

Existing economic constraints require developing solutions that can solve the problems of the future in a cost-effective way. Therefore, relying on acquisition of new hardware-based systems which typically involve significant capital investment is probably not an economically-feasible alternative. Instead, for improving the operations of our transportation system through the use of technologies such as adaptive traffic control and those that allow real time monitoring needs to be achieved by managing existing systems more intelligently and by extending the capabilities of existing devices using a software-based approach. Through the use of an existing radar-based vehicle detection system real time delay per vehicle measurements were obtained for a signalized intersection approach. Software was developed to interpret the datastream produced by the device on real time and monitor the trajectory of vehicles approaching the intersection. Delay was computed from the vehicle trajectories by treating vehicles as individual particles that move through the intersection therefore allowing the application of fundamental dynamics models to compute delay. Delay measurements are broadcast in realtime thus allowing monitoring and control from a traffic control center. The accuracy of the procedures was validated by comparing trajectories obtained using the vehicle detection with those obtained using an instrumented vehicle. Data from the validation shows that data from the existing devices can be processed to produce trajectories that accurately match those of vehicles approaching the intersection. The methods and the software presented by the authors show the feasibility of adding value to existing vehicle detection systems by adding functions that are far beyond the device design capabilities.