Truck Weight Distributions at Traffic Count Sites Using WIM and GPS Data

This paper presents a method for estimating gross vehicle weight (GVW) distributions of five axle tractor trailers (‘3-S2’) at traffic count sites. Traffic count sites include inductive loop detector or automatic vehicle classifier sites that do not measure vehicle weight unlike Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) sites. Truck weight data is needed for pavement design, weight enforcement, traffic monitoring, and freight transportation planning but the low spatial resolution of WIM can limit potential applications. This paper proposes to increase the spatial resolution of truck weight data by providing weight estimates at traffic count sites using Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM). A GVW distribution at a traffic count site is estimated by combining GMMs estimated at WIM sites that are defined to be spatially related to the traffic count site. Truck travel patterns derived from a large truck global positioning system (GPS) database are used to determine the degree to which a WIM and traffic count site are spatially related. Specifically, the number of GPS truck traces that cross both the traffic count site and each WIM site defined the mixing proportions in the GMM. A leave-one-out cross validation framework allows for comparisons of estimated and measured GVW distributions at each WIM site. Coincidence ratios and two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) tests are used as comparison metrics for a case study of 112 WIM sites in California. The proposed methodology provides favorable results compared to a baseline approach which defines the spatial relation between sites using Great Circle Distances (GCD).

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABJ35 Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Monitoring.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Hernandez, Sarah
  • Hyun, Kyung (Kate)
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Estimating; Global Positioning System; Methodology; Spatial analysis; Tractor trailer combinations; Traffic counting stations; Travel patterns; Vehicle weight; Weigh in motion
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Motor Carriers;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01627885
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-03732
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 28 2017 1:55PM