Feasibility of Using V2I Sensing Probe Data for Real-Time Monitoring of Multi-Class Vehicular Traffic Volumes in Unmeasured Road Locations

Portions of dynamic traffic volumes consisting of multiple vehicle classes are accurately monitored without vehicle detectors using vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication systems. This offers the feasibility of online monitoring of the total traffic volumes with multi-vehicle classes without any advanced vehicle detectors. To evaluate this prospect, this article presents a method of monitoring dynamic multi-class vehicular traffic volumes in a road location where road-side equipment (RSE) for V2I communication is in operation. The proposed method aims to estimate dynamic total traffic volume data for multiple vehicle classes using the V2I sensing probe volume (i.e. partial vehicular traffic volumes) collected through the RSE. An experimental study was conducted using real-world V2I sensing probe volume data. The results showed that traffic volumes for vehicle types I and II (i.e. cars and heavy vehicles, respectively) can be effectively monitored with average errors of 6.69% and 10.89%, respectively, when the penetration rates of the in-vehicle V2I device for the two vehicle types average 0.384 and 0.537, respectively. The performance of the method in terms of detection error is comparable to those of widely used vehicle detectors. Therefore, V2I sensing probe data for multi-vehicle classes can complement the functions of vehicle detectors because the penetration rate of in-vehicle V2I devices is currently high.