Congestion and travel time are two important measures in assessing the efficiency of arterial roads. Such measures can be used to evaluate the performance of traffic control systems and to develop management strategies while providing real-time traffic information to road users. This paper discusses the algorithm that uses traffic data generated from an adaptive traffic system to derive estimates of real-time travel time and congestion level on arterial roads. The algorithm is an integral part of the software package:Advanced Real-time Traffic Information System (ARTIS) which is able to provide a full set of performance measures from any traffic control system. Selected case studies are presented to demonstrate the application of the software on two arterial routes in Melbourne under the control of Sydney Co-ordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS). Comparison of estimated travel times with actual travel times showed that ARTIS was capable of providing results which were comparable to those obtained from floating car surveys and from the licensed number plate matching technique. It concludes that ARTIS can be used to monitor traffic system performance in real time and to assist the traffic control authority in better managing its network. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. 0612AR242E.
Samenvatting