Evaluating Commercial Probe Data Quality on Arterial Facilities: Insights From Multi-Year Cross-Vendor Validation

Abstract

This paper summarizes the findings from five years of commercial probe data validation conducted in the United States through the I-95 Corridor Coalition Vehicle Probe Project (VPP), focusing specifically on how travel time data quality on arterial facilities has changed since an initial study evaluated it during 2013 and 2014. Thirteen separate arterial validation efforts were conducted from 2014 to 2018 as part of VPP Phase II (VPPII), and data quality from three commercial probe vendors was evaluated through comparison with reference travel time data obtained via re-identification technology. Using two evaluation techniques—a traditional analysis that summarizes the accuracy of precision and bias error metrics, and a slowdown analysis that quantifies each vendor’s ability to capture major slowdown events—the results from VPPII studies are compared with data quality previously observed from nine validation efforts during Phase I (VPPI) from 2013 to 2014. The results show clear improvement in VPPII accuracy levels and suggest that commercial travel time data sets are suitable for many planning and operations applications.