USING PROBE-MEASURED TRAVEL TIMES TO DETECT MAJOR FREEWAY INCIDENTS IN HOUSTON, TEXAS

As a prelude to installing an automatic vehicle identification system for collecting traffic and travel time information from probe vehicles, the Texas Transportation Institute, in conjunction with the Texas Department of Transportation, initiated a pilot study to test the feasibility of using probe-provided travel time information to detect freeway incidents. As part of this pilot study, 200 commuters equipped with cellular telephones were used to collect travel time and incident information from three facilities [I-45 (both the main lanes and the high-occupancy-vehicle lane), the Hardy Toll Road, and US-59] on the north side of Houston, Texas. Historical travel time patterns were developed for each link using data from known incident-free conditions. The statistical principle of standard normal deviates was applied to 11 months of data to determine when a probe travel time exceeded the expected travel time under incident-free conditions. Whereas this approach resulted in detection rates that were lower and false alarm rates that were higher than those reportedly produced by other incident detection algorithms, this study illustrated that some level of incident detection could be achieved using travel time information provided by probe vehicles. Because of limitations in the data, it was not possible to determine the number of incidents that were not detected by the system or the detection times for the known incident conditions.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.3141/1554-25
• Summary URL:
  • http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=USING+PROBE-MEASURED+TRAVEL+TIMES+TO+DETECT+MAJOR+FREEWAY+INCIDENTS+IN+HOUSTON%2c+TEXAS&author=K.+Balke&author=C.+Dudek&author=C.+Mountain&publication_year=1996
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/030905950X
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1554, Advanced Traffic Management Systems and High-Occupancy-Vehicle Systems.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Balke, K
  • Dudek, C L
  • Mountain, C E
• Publication Date: 1996

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 213-220
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1554
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Feasibility analysis; Freeways; Incident detection; Probe vehicles; Travel time
• Geographic Terms: Houston (Texas)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00732374
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 030905950X
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Feb 12 1997 12:00AM