Journey Time Estimation Using Route Profiles

Abstract

Estimating journey times is of increasing importance in the modern world for the fulfilment of social and business occasions. Probably the most variable journey times are the times experienced when using a road network. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are used to address this problem to estimate journey times for interested authorities and commuters. This dissertation presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a tool that is used to generate route profiles for use in the ITS domain. The tool is biased for use on the inter-urban national primary routes in the Republic of Ireland. This ubiquitous computing project allows journey times to be generated using a set of probe vehicles. The probe vehicles are tracked using Global Positioning System (GPS). Journey times are tagged with context data such as the prevailing weather conditions during the time the GPS reading was made. To accomplish the above goals, a Geographic Information System (GIS) application was developed in order to process GPS and weather data to produce contextualised journey records. These historical records are stored in a database and queried by a web server to deliver records to the road management tool or traveller information system. This tool has built route profiles of a road network. These route profiles could be used later to provide an indication of the level of service that is being provided by road management authorities. For example, authorities could use the generated journey times as a measure of adequacy for journey times of roads. The tool could also be used by commuters to make more informed decisions about their journey plans. Given better road management and better driver comfort and safety, road networks should become more pleasurable to use.