How Much GPS Data Do We Need?

With the growing prevalence of communications technologies, GPS, and the mobile internet, more and more real-time location information is collected by private companies and marketed for retail. This body of data offers transportation agencies potential opportunities to improve operations, but it also presents unique challenges. This article proposes a hybrid data framework to utilize real-time, GPS-based, point-speed data from mobile sources to augment previous investments in existing fixed sensors. In addition, a methodology is described for data quality monitoring crucial for any transportation agency considering the use of commercially available probe data. In order to answer questions that arise in conducting data procurement and sensor deployment strategies for transportation agencies, a systematic analysis of the performance trade-offs among a menu of data sources is described. The results presented in this article were generated from the first procurement of streaming probe data from the private sector conducted on behalf of the California Department of Transportation and executed at UC Berkeley. Third-party data were incorporated with loop detector data and travel times were estimated within the bounds of driver variability. This achievement was repeated over multiple weeks and multiple congested freeway sites. In one rural area where active loops did not exist, operational travel time performance measures were obtained. While penetration rates for GPS-based probe data are now suitable for travel time estimation on selected corridors, data fusion makes possible the effective use of data from multiple sources or providers; when data from multiple sources are fused, superior results are obtained.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABJ30(3) Travel Time, Speed and Reliability.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Patire, Anthony D
  • Wright, Matthew
  • Prodhomme, Boris
  • Bayen, Alexandre
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data collection; Data fusion; Data quality; Estimating; Freeways; Global Positioning System; Probe vehicles; Real time information; Rural areas; Sensors; Traffic congestion; Transportation departments; Transportation operations; Travel time; Urban areas
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01520322
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-4087
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 27 2014 3:38PM