CHARACTERISTICS OF MULTILANE TRAFFIC FLOW FROM AERIAL DATA

Over the past few years, the Federal Highway Administration has collected aerial traffic flow data by time-lapse photography with a helicopter-mounted camera. The raw car trajectories developed from this data base are discrete in time. In this study, a methodology was developed to produce continuous car trajectories from the discrete data base, i.e., the data base thus obtained gives location, speed and acceleration as a continuous function of time. These continuous car trajectories were then used to develop some microscopic and macroscopic characteristics of multilane traffic flow. The microscopic results consist of statistical descriptions of the behavior of individual vehicles which are either in a car following situation because they are unable to pass or who are in the process of accepting a gap in an adjacent lane when they are able to change lanes. The macroscopic results in this study consist of statistical descriptions of traffic density, which is a bulk parameter representing the number of cars in a given roadway section.

• Corporate Authors:

  University of Southern California, Los Angeles

  Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 3715 McClintock Avenue
  Los Angeles, CA  United States  90089-0193

  Department of Transportation

  Office of University Research, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Agahi, R
  • Gafarian, A V
  • Jagger, P
  • Nguyen, L T
  • Pahl, J
• Publication Date: 1976-10

Media Info

• Pagination: 135 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acceleration (Mechanics); Aerial surveying; Databases; Highway traffic control; Highways; Lane changing; Location; Methodology; Motor vehicles; Multilane highways; Position fixing; Research; Speed; Statistical analysis; Time lapse photography; Traffic density; Traffic flow; Traffic speed; Traffic surveys; Trajectory; Vehicle trajectories; Vehicles
• Old TRIS Terms: Aerial surveys
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Research; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00158983
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT/TST-76T/2 Final Rpt., TR-76-2
• Contract Numbers: DOT-OS-50122
• Files: NTIS, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 15 1978 12:00AM