Merging of traffic and weather data in Gothenburg area (Practical implementation)
Pilot 2: Merging of Traffic and Weather Data in Gothenburg
Area (Practical Implementation)
Purpose of the Pilot
The main purposes of the pilot are:
- Create a traffic flow/travel time prediction model from the end user UI point of view
- Study the data in a research perspective
- Investigate what kinds of algorithms are possible to use for this specific pilot.
- Investigate the key factors that might be of value and have an impact on the Gothenburg pilot.
Idea and Motivation
The capacity of the roads in many cities has not grown as rapidly as the traffic flow has increased and this requires big efforts to meet the traffic needs now and in the near future. To test the ideas, Gothenburg is proposed as a ROADIDEA pilot, due to data access from several sources in the area and also that both the Swedish ROADIDEA partners, Semcon and Klimator, are located there.
Gothenburg’s traffic situation is quite specific since the city is separated by a river and there are only three connections over the river close the city, the last one built forty years ago. Since then, more roads have been built in Gothenburg but no more connections over the river. This causes a lot of traffic problems and might be typical for other cities with growing transport needs as well.
The key research question of the pilot is how the use of modern technology can result to a better traffic situation when making analysis with historical data. A very important part of the pilot is to evaluate the models developed in WP3. Especially the concept of combining traffic with weather is very challenging and will form a basis for the Pilot.
Pilot Description
In this pilot a traffic flow/travel time prediction model from the end user UI point of view will be created. The model will use both historical model data and real time data (like traffic density and traffic speed). Real time data will be fed to a specific algorithm and as a result will be current traffic flow and a prediction of the future. The model “surface” will be built on a historical data sample and then fed with two real time data values when predicting the future traffic situation. The time span thought is 2 hours. It can, however, be adjusted to be for example 1 hour or 4 hours. A MatLab script will be used as a base of the system.
The end user case of the pilot will be a mobile, browser-based website and/or mobile application which illustrates both the current traffic flow (based on real time data) and traffic flow prediction (based on real time data and historical data model). The application will be realized by Lociga, Destia will support the process. All the mobile application records will be saved to Logica’s database to be used e.g. in the predictions.
Data Sources
To build up this Pilot, several different data sources are going to be used and combined with new and improved algorithms.
• Traffic Information from Sensors and Cameras
Gothenburg has a lot of sensors and cameras to measure the traffic and include several parameters such as speed, flow, number of vehicles, distance between vehicles etc. These parameters are sampled in a period of one minute and stored in a database of the Swedish road administration. For this specific pilot one minute data have been requested for the whole period of a selection of important gateways of the roads with high amount of traffic.
• Road Weather Information
VVIS (Road Weather Information System) is the Swedish Road Administration’s system to measure weather on the Swedish roads. There are about 700 stations around the country to measure road and air temperature, dew point, air humidity, precipitation, wind speed and wind direction etc.
• Airport Weather Observations (if possible/accessible)
METAR (METeorological Airport Report) is one of the worlds most standardized data sources for weather information regarding parameters and format. The observations are made manually and have the same format all over the world and are also made at the same time, xx:20 and xx:50. The information (data sets) are free of charge but require knowledge to be understood.
Eg. METAR esgg 010150z 23015kt 3400 -dz br ovc002 10/10 q1015
In the example above the parameters are: wind speed and wind direction, visibility, sort of participation, cloudbase and skyview, temperature, dew point, air pressure etc.
• Satellite Weather (if possible/accessible)
A lot of satellites around the world are monitoring the weather and powerful computers are making analysis of the weather and creating forecasts. This information can be of value in ROADIDEA project. But to get this information is a little bit difficult, and even more difficult to analyse the information and combine it with other valuable information.
Pilot Data Period
The pilot will use historical data from the period of 1st of November 2007 to 31st March 2008. For this period, Semcon and Klimator have lot of historical data to use as a base for the pilot.
The Challenge for Innovation
The challenge in this project is not to look on separate sources. The challenge is to combine them together and use different algorithms connecting the sources in a new way.
Necessary ROADIDEA Partners
The idea is that the Gothenburg pilot should be done in cooperation with the following partners in WP4 and WP6:
- Destia
- Logica
- Semcon
- Klimator
Next Steps and Outlook
Next steps should be:
- Setting up of a local team consisting of ROADIDEA members and local partners and pilot kick-off
- Collection and analysis of identified data sources
- Further conceptual ideas on the model and the modelling concept
- Identification of the need for further research into the process.
Estimated Pilot Schedule
The aim is to start the pilot during Q1 of the year 2009.