Spatial Characteristics of Vehicles on Urban Arterial Roads Analysis Based on License Plate Data

Vehicle license plate recognition technology is an important component of an intelligent traffic surveillance and control system. This paper details a study of travel characteristics of vehicles on urban arterials by using license plate data. Example verification was conducted in Shenzhen by applying data mining technologies. According to the research, vehicles seem to follow certain temporal and spatial distributions in an urban road network. A key focus of this study was the method for gathering spatial distribution characteristics of vehicles from the analysis of license plate data. First, it is proposed that there are obvious spatial patterns regarding travel behaviors of vehicles during periods of travel with high recurring demands. Second, the existing methods for deducing origin-destination (OD) information are summarized, and a new method for utilizing vehicle license plate recognition data is presented. Then, the proposed OD deduction method was applied in the actual data analysis in the city of Shenzhen. Finally, application of vehicle license plate recognition data in analysis of traffic structure along key sections of roadways was also proposed and then verified with real data in Shenzhen.