Deriving the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram for an urban area using counted flows and taxi GPS

Abstract

This paper applies the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) and the Generalized Macroscopic Fundamental (GMFD) Diagram to estimate traffic characters for an urban area. We used traffic flow data manually counted from intersection traffic video and taxi GPS data to derive MFD and GMFD. The method is suitable to recognize traffic situation. These figures show the property of the road network, which consists of infrastructure and control. Mastering the properties of the network supply side, we can better manage and control traffic demand. In the process of data analysis, we found that the time step for data processing is a determinant for the MFD and GMFD shapes. That means different time step produces different results.