Exploring the use of spatial data as input to traffic control and traffic safety analysis
PI: Wei Hua Lin, University of Arizona
$100,291 (UCCONNECT $50,142, matching funds $50,149)

Abstract: While the performance of traffic management systems relies heavily on the availability and quality of traffic data, the costs for data acquisition and maintenance with the current system is high and the quality of data is typically low. For the past decade or so, vehicle-based data have already been used for capturing traffic conditions and generating performance measures. The proposed research will take one step further by exploring ways to utilize vehicle-based data for traffic control and safety analysis. With the rapid development in connected vehicle technologies, we envision that someday traffic data from individual vehicles will dominate the traffic data source not only for traffic information and system evaluation but for system control as well. However, vehicle-based data are spatial in nature whereas traffic data from existing source are largely spot data. The move from spot data to spatial data is a paradigm shift. In this proposed research we will explore how algorithm development for traffic control can be adapted to the spatial data and the new form of data can be utilized to enhance and improve traffic control and safety analysis. The proposed research falls into topic category 2 in the RFP: Data Collection and Use.