Abstract
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Abstract
Connected vehicles can transmit real-time information to traffic control management systems. Despite the recent technical advances of telecommunication networks and mobile computing there have been no real-time adaptive traffic signal control experiments with connected vehicles. Most of the research in this field has been carried out only with simulations. In this work we present the computer system that was adopted to regulate traffic signals in real-time with "smartphone-connected" vehicles as the only source of information. We introduce the description of the computer system architecture that was deployed in an experiment of a Floating Car Data (FCD)-based adaptive traffic signal in which a traffic signal has been regulated in real-time with 100% "smartphone-connected" vehicles. The description of the system based on commonly-used technologies could help others to develop and deploy new traffic signal management systems in new "connected" intersections.
1. Introduction
Both connected vehicles and connected traffic signals are poisoned to become an important part of the forthcoming Internet of Things (IoT) and of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Connected vehicles may help to manage and control road traffic in many new ways. Classic road traffic engineering practice was founded on efforts to allocate demand on transit systems [1] and on better road traffic control by adopting tools such as: traffic simulation [2–7] dynamic network loading equilibrium and dynamic models [8–11] and the implementation of efforts to influence user route choice [12–16]. There have been no practical advances in traffic signal regulation in the last years and traffic signals are very often controlled with prefixed signal settings that are not always appropriate for the always-changing traffic flows. This can cause traffic congestion that is a serious problem in cities and also a great cause of air pollution. The use of inductive loops for real-time traffic signal control is the current standard and its limitation lies in the expensive infrastructure and maintenance resources that are necessary to keep them working. Existing technologies such as smartphones can contribute to creating cheap "smartphone-connected" vehicles that can act as floating probe vehicles [17,18] (Floating Car Data: FCD), or the use of dedicated local wireless networks can create a dedicated vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication systems. By combining smart-phones with existing wireless mobile phone data networks and Satellite localization systems, ITS can be deployed at a very low cost compared with ad hoc developed wireless systems that would bring higher costs. The first research efforts on smart-phone-based FCD did not benefit from satellite positioning systems, nowadays, mobile phones can obtain position data and transmit this information; thus it is possible to evaluate travel times and speeds [19,20]. An assessment of some safety issues is also possible [21]. with assistance for a safer driving [22]. The estimation of fuel consumption [23–26], the measurement of road pavement problems [27,28], and route choice behavior-based research are also possible with smart-phones.