Real-Time Traffic Monitoring and Prediction for Cranberry Township

Cranberry Township is a progressive municipality that works to maintain traffic efficiency on its transportation networks. Cranberry Township's unique geographical location at the junction of State Route 19, Interstates 79 and Interstates 76 (PA Turnpike) can pose tremendous challenges in coordinated traffic operations. Specifically, the Township operates a Coordinated Signal System that relies on historically generated signal timing plans, coupled with real time technology to manage day-to-day operations on the local network. Unfortunately, any planned or unplanned incidents (such as hazardous weather conditions, accidents, local events, etc.) on the Township’s network can cause catastrophic traffic gridlocks that can hardly be predicted or prevented by its current operations. To proactively forecast incident-induced congestion and ultimately alleviate it, this project incorporates real time data inputs from crowdsourced data feeds, traffic sensors and weather reports in the regional proximity of the Cranberry Township to predict traffic delays in real time for 30 minutes in advance. These predictions, together with the current traffic conditions in Cranberry Township, are used to recommend the Township’s Traffic Management Center (TMC) effective contingency signal timing plans using a well-tuned rule-based approach. A web-based traffic information system is then built for the Township to visualize the forecast, and alert TMC staff through dynamic online dashboards, email notifications and text messages. The prediction of congestion is made to each road segment in the Township, which can be used to recommend respective contingency signal plans ahead of actual traffic breakdowns. Consequently, this web-based system can alert TMC operators with foreseen traffic issues in the Township, and to allow for timely traffic management on the real-time basis.

• Record URL:
  https://ppms.cit.cmu.edu/media/project_files/61-Final.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  https://ppms.cit.cmu.edu/projects/detail/61
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/63284
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  National University Transportation Center for Improving Mobility (Mobility21)

  Carnegie Mellon University
  Pittsburgh, PA  United States  15213

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Yao, Weiran
  • Qian, Zhen (Sean)
• Publication Date: 2019-2-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 13p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Advanced traffic management systems; Crowdsourcing; Real time information; Traffic congestion; Traffic forecasting; Traffic signal timing; Traffic surveillance; Web applications
• Geographic Terms: Cranberry Township (Pennsylvania)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01695842
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747111
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Feb 21 2019 5:17PM