Development of an AIDA(Automatic Incident Detection Algorithm) for Uninterrupted Flow By Diminishing the Random Noise Effect of Traffic Detector Variables

Abstract

The data quality and measurements along consecutive detector stations can vary much even in the same traffic conditions due to variety in detector types, calibration and maintenance effort, field operation periods, minor geometric changes of roads and so on. These faulty situations often create 10% or more of inherent difference in important traffic measurements between two stations even under stable low flow condition. Low detection rates(DR) and high false alarm rates(FAR) therefore sets in among many popular Automatic Incident Detection Algorithms(AIDA). This research is two-folded and aims mainly to develop a new AIDA for uninterrupted flow. For this purpose, a technique which utilizes a Simple Arithmetic Operation(SAO) of traffic variables is introduced. This SAO technique is designed to address the inherent discrepancy of detector data observed successive stations, and to overcome the degradation of AIDA performance. It was found that this new algorithm improves DR as much as 95 percent and above. And mean time to detection(MTTD) is found to be 1 minutes or less. When it comes to FAR, this new approach compared to existing AIDAs reduces FAR up to 31.0 percent. And capability in persistency check of on-going incidents was found excellent as well.