For years, Gene Hicks thought there had to be a better way to count the number of vehicles traveling his state’s roadways. As director of the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDOT’s) Traffic Forecasting and Analysis Section, Hicks oversees the tedious task of laying out road tubes at approximately 33,000 sites (about 12,000 each year) to determine traffic volumes. A traffic tube counter tallies each pulse of air generated when a tire runs over the tube.
Each summer, MnDOT spends about $500,000 statewide to collect two days’ worth of traffic counts at each site. Hicks thinks Big data can help supply a more efficient, extensive and cost-effective solution.
“The counts we get are very accurate although they only represent two days of traffic for the entire year,” Hicks points out. “In this technological age, the way we do it — the way most states do it — seems pretty low tech.”
So what’s the big deal about Big Data? Numerous transportation data providers collect all kinds of information generated from global positioning system, Bluetooth®, their own subscribers, and supplemental data they purchase from location-based service providers. The companies generate speed data estimates, traffic congestion estimates and origin-destination information.
The question is, can these companies also generate accurate traffic counts for MnDOT and other state departments of transportation (DOTs) from the data they already collect? States need to know precise numbers so they can manage their roadway systems with capacity analysis studies and travel forecasts. Every state is also required to report annual traffic counts to the Federal Highway Administration, so leveraging the power of Big Data can help them meet federal requirements.
“Years ago, I proposed a MnDOT research project to determine whether traffic counts could be gathered from Big Data, but the idea was not taken seriously,” Hicks says. “Last year, when I proposed the project again, it was funded. And that’s when the Texas A&M Transportation Institute [TTI] joined our project.”
Like Hicks, Shawn Turner, head of TTI’s Mobility Analysis Division, had often wondered about the possibility of generating traffic counts from the information gleaned from data providers.
