Design and Initial Implementation of an Inductive Signature-Based Real-Time Traffic Performance Measurement System

The need for accurate, comprehensive and timely traffic surveillance information is critical to ensure optimal traffic operations and management for advanced traffic management systems (ATMS). This paper describes an on-going study that involves the design and implementation of the section-based freeway real-time traffic performance measurement system (RTPMS)-an advanced surveillance system based on inductive vehicle signature technologies. Unlike traffic performance measurement systems that depend on point measures, RTPMS provides section-based travel time measures via matching of inductive vehicle signatures obtained at two adjacent detector station locations. Hence, the performance measures account for traffic conditions spanning an entire section, not just at a local detector station. In addition, each re-identified vehicle is also classified in RTPMS, yielding detailed section-based performance measures of different vehicle classes. This gives the ability to obtain more accurate travel statistics and vehicle exposure rates, such as those of commercial vehicles.