Traffic Estimation and Prediction Systems

Intelligent transportation could be seen as a high-tech search for the road less ......

It ..... for improved traffic flow to ensure safer, quicker, less expensive, and more energy-efficient travel.

Many intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are being designed to better manage traffic on frequently used roads to reduce ..... and achieve these goals.

Inside cars, navigational systems with display panels are intended to guide drivers around ..... traffic and help them avoid accidents.

Traffic management technologies are designed to communicate with drivers on busy interstate highways through navigational systems and ..... message signs.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) ..... a Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) research project to develop advanced software tools that will be used to address complex traffic control and management issues in the information-based, dynamic ITS environment.

Under the DTA project, ORNL's Energy Division, along with researchers at both the University of Texas at Austin and MIT, are developing real-time Traffic Estimation and Prediction System (TrEPS) software tools; the goal is to help traffic management centers (TMCs) anticipate and ..... traffic problems.

TrEPS uses traffic surveillance data in ..... with advanced traffic models to estimate and predict traffic network conditions and to generate guidance for travelers.

"The typical operations of traffic management centers tend to be relatively reactive in .....," says Bill Kn, ORNL program manager for intelligent transportation systems at the National Transportation Research Center (NTRC).

"Using real-time traffic data from road sensors monitoring the number of cars and their speed, TrEPS predicts traffic conditions in the near future; thus, it could help TMCs become more proactive by alerting them to control measures that ..... to poor traffic flow."