Title: Travel Time Quality in a Probe Vehicle Network
Abstract: We report on experimental results and theoretical analysis of travel time quality in a network of probe vehicles with 2-way communications and onboard maps. The network nodes consisted of commercially-available Dash Express navigation units, backed by the Dash service (discontinued as of 6/30/2010). The probe units capture relevant traffic information, offload processing from the server without sacrificing accuracy, and maintain privacy for the end users. Accuracy tests show that, where coverage is sufficient, probe data errors rates are less than 10%, as opposed to 15-30% for competing technologies. Additional data and processing can further lower the error rate, whereas competitors will require significant investment to improve their numbers. On a given road segment, 95% coverage requires 0.5% to 1% penetration, depending on the flow rate, as verified experimentally. This works out to 36 traffic probes per hour for a wide range of flows. For an entire metro area, the critical mass is a function of the size of the metro and concentration of traffic on the highway network. For the San Francisco Bay area, critical mass for rush hour on major highways is about 6000 vehicles. Upon reaching critical mass, probe data is useful for many other applications, such as map refinement, commuter web sites, routing, and location-based services such as group coordination and advertising. As companies such as Nokia (6) and TomTom (7) start to express interest in probe data, this technology will soon become a major enabler of LBS and mobility in general.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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