scholarly journals Determining the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram from Mixed and Partial Traffic Data

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangbeibei Ji ◽  
Mingwei Xu ◽  
Jie Li ◽  
Henk J Van Zuylen

The macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD) is a graphical method used to characterize the traffic state in a road network and to monitor and evaluate the effect of traffic management. For the determination of an MFD, both traffic volumes and traffic densities are needed. This study introduces a methodology to determine an MFD using combined data from probe vehicles and loop detector counts. The probe vehicles in this study were taxis with GPS. The ratio of taxis in the total traffic was determined and used to convert taxi density to the density of all vehicles. This ratio changes over the day and between different links. We found evidence that the MFD was rather similar for days in the same year based on real data collected in Changsha, China. The difference between MFDs made of data from 2013 and 2015 reveals that the modification of traffic control can influence the MFD significantly. A macroscopic fundamental diagram could also be drawn for an area with incomplete data gained from a sample of loop detectors. An MFD based on incomplete data can also be used to monitor the emergence and disappearance of congestion, just as an MFD based on complete traffic data.

2000 ◽  
Vol 1719 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Cherrett ◽  
Hugh Bell ◽  
Mike McDonald

Investigated are potential new uses for the digital output produced by single inductive loop detectors (2 m x 1.5 m and 2 m x 6.5 m) used in most European urban traffic control systems. Over a fixed time period, the average loop-occupancy time per vehicle (ALOTPV) for a detector being sampled every 250 ms is determined by taking the number of 250-ms occupancies and dividing by the number of vehicles. In a similar way, the average headway time between vehicles (AHTBV) is determined by taking the number of 250-ms vacancies and dividing by the number of vehicles. Over a 30-s period, the minimum and maximum values of ALOTPV and AHTBV ranged from 1 to 120 (an ALOTPV of 1 and an AHTBV of 120 representing free-flow conditions, an ALOTPV of 120 and an AHTBV of 1 representing a stationary queue). Identifying periods when a link was operating under capacity and at capacity and when it had become saturated could be more clearly identified by using plots of ALOTPV and AHTBV data over time compared to the more traditional percentage occupancy output. ALOTPV also was used to successfully identify long vehicles from cars down to speeds of 15 km/h.


2014 ◽  
Vol 505-506 ◽  
pp. 1118-1121
Author(s):  
Han Yang

Vehicular trajectories are firstly achieved on the basis of vehicle time and space information obtained from VISSIM simulation. Via simulating setting loop detectors at different locations and collecting traffic data in different time intervals, different traffic flow fundamental diagrams on the basis of the detect data are then generated. Finally, comparing these fundamental diagrams, two conclusions are achieved. The loop detective interval has a significant impact on fundamental diagrams while the detector location has an extremely limited influence. Particularly, fundamental diagram is more aggregated with longer data collecting interval and capacity is more easily to be obtained with longer distance between neighboring loop detectors.


Author(s):  
Lukas Ambühl ◽  
Allister Loder ◽  
Michiel C. J. Bliemer ◽  
Monica Menendez ◽  
Kay W. Axhausen

The uncertainty in the estimation of the macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD) under real-world traffic conditions and urban dynamics might result in an inaccurate estimation of the MFD parameters—especially if congestion is rarely observed network-wide. For example, as data normally come from punctual observations out of the whole network, it is unclear how representative these observations might be (i.e., how much is the observed capacity affected by the network’s inhomogeneity). Similarly, if the observed data do not exhibit a distinct congested branch, it is hard to determine the network capacity and critical density. This, in turn, also leads to uncertainties and errors in the parametrization of the MFD for applications, for example traffic control. This paper introduces a novel methodology to estimate (i) the level of inhomogeneity in the network, and (ii) the critical density of the MFD, even when no congested branch is observed. The methodology is based on the idea of re-sampling the empirical data set. Using an extensive data set from Lucerne, Switzerland, and London, UK, insights are provided on the performance and the application of the proposed methodology. The proposed methodology is used to illustrate how the level of inhomogeneity is lower in Lucerne than in the three areas of the network of London that are investigated. The proposed measure of the level of inhomogeneity gives city planners the possibility to analyze and investigate how efficiently their road network is utilized. In addition, the analysis shows that, for the network of Lucerne, the proposed methodology allows accurate estimation of the critical density up to 16 times more often than would be possible otherwise. This simple and robust estimation of the critical density is crucial for the application of many traffic control algorithms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bharti Sharma ◽  
Sachin Kumar

Metropolitan road traffic mechanisms in developing countries are a critical problem due to fast motorization. The optimization of traffic control is one method to decrease this problem. In this study, a genetic algorithm was implemented to minimize delay at an intersection by finding red and green cycle intervals at an intersection. The objective function minimizes the delay at an intersection and increases progressive flows of traffic on roads. The study was done on real data collected from three t- intersections in the city of Hardwar, India. Traffic data for traffic flows, queue sizes, and traffic speed are collected using video detection systems in the study area. The digital images from the camera were analyzed in real time. The results show that the traffic control performance is improved up to 85% over existing algorithms proposed by the same author.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11227
Author(s):  
Piyapong Suwanno ◽  
Rattanaporn Kasemsri ◽  
Kaifeng Duan ◽  
Atsushi Fukuda

Bangkok, Thailand is prone to flooding after heavy rain. Many road sections become impassable, causing severe traffic congestion and greatly impacting activities. Optimal vehicle management requires the knowledge of flooding impact on road traffic conditions in specific areas. A method is proposed to quantify urban flood situations by expressing traffic conditions in specific ranges using the concept of macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD). MFD-based judgement allows for a road manager to understand the current traffic situation and take appropriate traffic control measures. MFD analysis identified traffic flow–density and density–velocity relationships by using the shape of the estimated MFD travel time-series plots. Then, results were applied to develop a traffic model with vehicle-flow parameters as a measuring method for road-network performance. The developed model improved road-network traffic-flow performance under different flood conditions. A method is also presented for traffic management evaluation on the assumption that flooding occurs.


Author(s):  
Rafegh Aghamohammadi ◽  
Jorge Laval

This paper extends the Stochastic Method of Cuts (SMoC) to approximate of the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) of urban networks and uses Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) method to estimate the model parameters based on empirical data from a corridor and 30 cities around the world. For the corridor case, the estimated values are in good agreement with the measured values of the parameters. For the network datasets, the results indicate that the method yields satisfactory parameter estimates and graphical fits for roughly 50\% of the studied networks, where estimations fall within the expected range of the parameter values. The satisfactory estimates are mostly for the datasets which (i) cover a relatively wider range of densities and (ii) the average flow values at different densities are approximately normally distributed similar to the probability density function of the SMoC. The estimated parameter values are compared to the real or expected values and any discrepancies and their potential causes are discussed in depth to identify the challenges in the MFD estimation both analytically and empirically. In particular, we find that the most important issues needing further investigation are: (i) the distribution of loop detectors within the links, (ii) the distribution of loop detectors across the network, and (iii) the treatment of unsignalized intersections and their impact on the block length.


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