Use of GPS With Road Mapping For Traffic Analysis

Abstract

Traffic control and management requires high-tech computerized solutions as opposed to the manual methods that commonly involve the use of traffic policemen, traffic lights and safety cameras. Collection and analysis of road traffic data is a key requirement towards establishment of traffic conditions on any given road segments. This paper explores the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology incorporated with road mapping focused at traffic data collection and analysis of traffic conditions. A GPS data receiver application and traffic analysis system was developed that collects GPS traffic data and provides the ability for monitoring and analyzing traffic scenarios on the roads, for instance the speed of traffic. It also provides planners on the road usage patterns for decision making. All these aspects can be analysed both in real-time and historically basing on the fact that historical data is captured and stored for future use. The system has an addition ability to trigger email alerts on speeding vehicles. The results show that there is great need for real-time traffic information analysis due to the tremendous variability in traffic scenarios in major cities like Nairobi, Kenya. The system has been used to show changes in position, speed and directions of vehicles travelling on the Kenyan roads with the speed of traffic algorithm developed and effectively put in place. The established centralized GPS server database provides a means of various kinds of analysis. Using the geographic components in the collected GPS data, and visualizing by mapping, provides a clearer view of the traffic conditions for any given region. Challenges facing the existing systems could be mitigated through the adoption of the GPS based system.