Research Proposal : real time traffic information system

WOOD Andrew 1 March, 2007

Executive Summary
I examined the necessary research required to develop a real time traffic information system to notify the road users about travelling time on major highway. The research will expand the current research held in Ritsumeikan University, Computer Science Department. In order to provide real time information on traffic congestion, we have to collect enough data in various routes using commonly available technology. With the emerging new Wi-Fi technology that will become available in many major cities, my extension to the current research would be setting up various Wi-Fi transmission point along the highway. Collect the login information of a particular user, when this user enters into another transmission point along the same highway, time difference will be calculated and provide traveling time to the LOCAL DATA ACQUISTION part of the below diagram [ an on-going research by Nguyen Hung and Prof Hideto Ikeda ]

This addition to the current research will allow more Data to be captured and calculations will become simpler -- provided that if each transmission point got its own ID. Not only cars with the expensive GPS will benefit from the system, but all the subscribers of the Wi-Fi will help to provide traveling time info to the central database system. Ultimately, the workload of the top level [ Knowledge management system ] will be reduced and become more responsive, less calculation is necessary since there are only few designated transmission point information will be submitted. Rather than looping through a huge database in real time to determine each individual cars vector and destination.

On many major routes, actually, there are few alternative routes away from the highway that could be used. Lets say a portion of cars use Highway route #A and another portions of cars use Alternate route #B during congested peak hours. When an advanced GPS recommend an alternate route #B to a driver, this alternative GPS suggestion will then be back up with real time data e.g. if this driver uses Alternate route #B, another 20 min will be saved ! This is a nice add-on, since collaboration with existing GPS system would become more easy, since the GPS companies could sell GPS with such feature for a higher subscription price.

In the 3 year research. I am planning to publish 6 to 9 paper in journal, academic conference etc. During the first year (1st): the main focus will be on developing prototype for such a real time traffic condition system For the second year(2nd): we will collaborate with the government highway department that allow ISPs to build up some Wi-Fi prototype and allow Wi-Fi ISP providers to collaborate together to provide Wi-Fi Service to the car passenger. There will be a common Wi-Fi log in page for all users in the highway despite the ISP networks that they used. In this way, user location could be traced once they enter into the Wi-Fi system either using their computer or phone. The travel time information will be pass to the Central database for analysis. The research paper at this stage would be focusing on equipment tuning, factors that determine accuracy of information. For the third year(3rd): we will collaborate with major GPS manufacturers to have alternate route information provided in their selected GPS models. The research paper would be focus on whether the driver at large would utilize the real time information and take alternate route or alternative modes of transportation (e.g. link with train ticket booking system) and result in ease of long traffic usage in main route. It is quite obvious that using Wi-Fi as an enabling technology, with a common log-in page. During the course of research, we are likely to discover other spin-off benefit e.g. banner ad to provide local information, tourist map. This could form a larger consortium with other content provider and allow the research to get more possible funding resources.

The proposed course of research will entail: Measurement of traffic flow along the main road with Wi-Fi transmission point info and collect user information Display the current information in web page with 5 min update interval Integrating with the traffic control center in the junction, to provide accurate and subjective decision support data, so that the officer could adjust traffic light program accordingly Feasibility study of integration into the Toyota Denso alike system (GPS) Integration to the train ticket booking system for updated availability info, so that commuter could opt to take the train instead of their car if they could get such train ticket availability information through the web By continuation and expand the current traffic research in the computing dept of the Ritsumeikan university Acquire the collaboration research effort with GPS/ traffic control office in the Government dept Building prototype system and research into technical issue, identifying the Key Performance Index to collect the data effectively and reflect it in regular time interval to the internet designated web page

Method:

Problem Statement
In the literature review, Ive found No public road information systems have been established to record the actual traveling time required in major routes during peak hours. Although in some US interstate highway, the approximate travel time may be given in electronic road sign, but those information are estimation only. If such information and alternative recommendation is provided, this would help the drivers better prepare for their journey ahead or opt for another mode of transport such as train (or delay their journey if they could see previous week statistics). This would also help the transportation / logistics company to better plan for their own transportation management system of their own company, so logistic traffic could be redistributed to non-peak hour, the utilization of the highway will be higher and be more efficient. By comparing to railway and highway, for railway, the passenger will know the exact time of departure and arrival. For other people taking their own car, they could go from point A to point B directly, but it seems to be no way that they will know the exact travel time esp when there is traffic congestion ahead. For logistics company, they prefer to do delivery at night when the traffic is more smooth and more predictable. In my proposed research, I will extend the research in Ritsumeikan University and study further the enabler-technology that allow the vision of the research centre to be realised. This would also be relative easy to be built as we could leverage the next generation Wi-Fi technology and collaborate with ISP providers. Analogously, the end goal is to provide road users the option of not taking their cars to the congested road and allow for more efficient traffic flow in the cities and highways.

Research Area
Traffic flow, particularly in major cities, is one of the most studied topics of modern life. Several problems arise from having large number of vehicles, including but not limited to, massive fossil fuels consumption; non-productive time spent traveling to work and vacation spots. The proposed system will provide a good indicator for the necessary journey time, congested roads to be avoided, taking some traffic away from the congested highway system. Along the feasible points in major routes (e.g. near the traffic light), we would build Wi-Fi system along the major highway, this would in return collect individual car information, this information will be feed back to the computer server and update the web page / GPS system accordingly. With this information known, next time, the car passes by another checkpoint, time could be calculated. As a result, the time required to travel in each major highway could be shown to the public via a web site. Drivers could then make their journey plan before they leave home or using their Wi-Fi cell phone to gather such traffic information while they are on the road. Another major goal of such systems is to create more efficient traffic patterns and road usage, the ultimate result being allow road users to avoid excessive delay during peak hours and time

spent in travel. If drivers realize that they would be late for their usual route, they might consider parking their car near the railway station and taking the public transport instead. These information could be fed into existing GPS system to alert the driver of possible congested routes and let the GPS recommend an alternative routing, GPS software have to adjust accordingly Initial research must focus on the specific characteristics and requirements of ad-hoc collaboration within the transportation context. Another important area to understand would be the interaction between driver and the system. My intended research will be build a prototype system including web graphic interface to demonstrate how it would be done and find out the limitation of the system. The next step would incorporate with the Transport Department and the GPS manufacturers to put it into practice. The work of Ritsumeikan University [1] [3] begins to shed some light on traffic control management system. This research, while ultimately aiming at realizing full range of options within transportation systems. I intend to use VB.net environment and flash graphic to develop the web interface.

Expected Results
Ultimately, I see this research being an enabling technology, let the public make the decision based on real time, up-to-the-minutes traveling time information for the major routes

References
[1] Nguyen T Hung, Hideto Ikeda, Kuribayasi Kenzi, Nikolaos Vogiatzis and Zin Liu An optimum algorithm for reporting of automobile position First International Conference on Communications and Electronics, HUT-ICCE 2006 [2] Dirk Helbing, Traffic and related self-driven many-particle systems., Reviews of Modern Physics 73, 1067-1141 2001. [3] Nguyen T Hung, Hideto Ikeda, Kuribayasi Kenzi, Nikolaos Vogiatzis and Zin Liu New Environment CREPE for transportation Control International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientist 2006, 790-795 2006 [4] Dirk Helbing, M. Schonhof, and D. Kern, Volatile decision dynamics: experiments, stochastic description, intermittency control, and traffic optimization., New Journal of Physics 4, 33.1 - 33.16 2002. [5] http://www.lsgi.polyu.edu.hk/RCGIST/LINT_ITS.htm [6] http://www.sunday.com/portal/common/plaintext.jsp?fldr_id=406