Traffic Dynamics: Method for Estimating Freeway Travel Times in Real Time from Flow Measurements

Abstract

This paper presents a method for estimating freeway travel times in real time directly from flow measurements, which is desirable for present and future Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems (IVHS) applications. An inductive modeling approach adapted here is based on stochastic queuing theory and the principle of conservation of vehicles. The analytical expression for link travel times satisfies traffic dynamics where the new form of the conservation of vehicles has been derived under generalized traffic conditions. A computer program has been developed to implement the algorithm. Analysis results show that the estimates have good agreement with empirical data measured at 30-s intervals. This methodology has potential applicable to automatic traffic control and automatic incident detection.