Continuing Evolution of Travel Time Data Information Collection and Processing

An exciting new traffic monitoring technology has been developed that provides accurate measurement of travel times as well as origin-destination data for freeway and arterial roadway networks. This technology receives signals emitted from Bluetooth equipped devices (cell phones, PDAs, car radios, etc.) in vehicles traveling past the monitoring units. The addresses of the received signals are compared by upstream and downstream units to derive travel times and origin-destination information. Tests of the Bluetooth devices have demonstrated high levels of accuracy and large sample sizes of 5% to 7% of the overall traffic stream. The Bluetooth devices are proving useful for measurement of travel times on both arterials and freeways at costs that are a factor of 100 less than equivalent floating car runs. In addition, the Bluetooth data has been shown to be superior to other data collection technologies (including conventional vehicle detectors) for measurement of arterial traffic flow. Privacy is less of an issue with the Bluetooth equipment due to the absence of databases that can relate addresses to specific individuals (owners). Future applications for this equipment are likely to include new traffic signal control algorithms that use the accurate measurement of travel times between intersections for calculation of traffic signal offsets that provide superior signal progression to that which is possible using conventional point traffic detectors. The Bluetooth equipment is currently being commercialized so that the traffic community can take advantage of its unique capabilities.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Tarnoff, Philip John
  • Bullock, Darcy M
  • Young, Stanley E
  • Wasson, James
  • Ganig, Nicholas
  • Sturdevant, James R
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2009-1-11 to 2009-1-15
• Date: 2009

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 14p
• Monograph Title: TRB 88th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Automatic data collection systems; Bluetooth technology; Cellular telephones; Highways; Information management; Intelligent transportation systems; Origin and destination; Personal digital assistants; Privacy; Travel time
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; I70: Traffic and Transport;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01129776
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 09-2030
• Files: BTRIS, TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 29 2009 8:49AM