Wireless Location Technology-Based Traffic Monitoring: Critical Assessment and Evaluation of an Early-Generation System

Abstract

An emerging technology known as wireless location technology has been developed to allow mobile wireless devices (the most common of which are cellular telephones) to be geolocated. Over the past decade, a number of research studies and operational tests have attempted to develop probe-based traffic monitoring systems using wireless location technology, but there still exist significant misperceptions concerning its capabilities. To address this problem, in this paper we seek to provide an assessment of wireless location technology-based traffic monitoring. The specific purposes of this paper are to (1) describe the concept of wireless location technology-based traffic monitoring, (2) present a critical assessment of past studies of this technology, (3) document the evaluation of one of the most recent operational tests—the 2001 Virginia Department of Transportation, Maryland State Highway Administration, and U.S. Wireless Corporation effort in the Washington, D.C., region, and (4) discuss the challenges that these systems pose to traffic engineering.