Traffic congestion prediction based on Estimated Time of Arrival

PLoS One. 2020 Dec 16;15(12):e0238200. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238200. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

With the rapid expansion of sensor technologies and wireless network infrastructure, research and development of traffic associated applications, such as real-time traffic maps, on-demand travel route reference and traffic forecasting are gaining much more attention than ever before. In this paper, we elaborate on our traffic prediction application, which is based on traffic data collected through Google Map API. Our application is a desktop-based application that predicts traffic congestion state using Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA). In addition to ETA, the prediction system takes into account various features such as weather, time period, special conditions, holidays, etc. The label of the classifier is identified as one of the five traffic states i.e. smooth, slightly congested, congested, highly congested or blockage. The results demonstrate that the random forest classification algorithm has the highest prediction accuracy of 92 percent followed by XGBoost and KNN respectively.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Accidents, Traffic / statistics & numerical data
  • Algorithms
  • Automobile Driving / statistics & numerical data*
  • Crowding
  • Time
  • Travel / statistics & numerical data*
  • Weather

Grants and funding

This research work is funded by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan’s TDF02-261 Project. Rs 50000($300) will be covered by HEC whereas any amount above this will be taken care of by Authors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.