Intensive traffic data collection for simulation of a congested Auckland motorway.

Intensive traffic data collection was undertaken on a congested 9.7 km urban section of the Southern Motorway (State Highway 1) in Auckland, New Zealand. The data was collected for use in building and validating an AIMSUN2 traffic simulation model. Collection techniques included inductive loops, pneumatic tubes, floating vehicle surveys, laser speed measurements and video traffic classification. This paper presents selected findings about the data collected and the methodologies used. New Zealand drivers in dense traffic may be more aggressive than is typical overseas. Post-processing of videotapes with a machine vision classifier proved a convenient technique for short-term traffic surveys. (A)