An Alternative Arterial Congestion Measurement for ATIS Purposes

Today, congestion migration is an important topic in the US for both freeway and arterial road systems. While freeway congestion has been widely studied, effectively measuring arterial congestion is still a developing topic, and is particularly important since more than 40 percent of US vehicle travel miles are resident in arterial roads. Arterial congestion measurement in the real world is complicated by technology challenges, such as limited arterial traffic detection capability, complex traffic flow patterns due to interruption of traffic signals, and different configurations of arterial traffic detectors. This paper investigates the effectiveness of arterial corridor congestion estimation using V+O (Volume plus Occupancy) data retrieved from the system detectors. Unlike the common stop-bar detectors, the system detectors are often used for "Responsive Traffic Plan Selection", where they are usually installed at a location immediate downstream of the intersection. The paper begins with a review of the existing efforts towards arterial congestion estimation, then focuses on the system detectors approach by looking at the effectiveness of the aggregated system detectors data for arterial congestion measurement. In comparing the field collected data with the simulation results, the conclusion illustrates that system detectors can provide reasonable congestion estimates and are sufficient to serve as the arterial congestion level estimation source for the ATIS system.