Multiple Sensors Data Integration for Traffic Incident Detection Using the Quadrant Scan
Ayham Zaitouny,
Athanasios D. Fragkou,
Thomas Stemler,
David M. Walker,
Yuchao Sun,
Theodoros Karakasidis,
Eftihia Nathanail,
Michael Small
Affiliations
Ayham Zaitouny
ARC Training Centre for Transforming Maintenance Through Data Science, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
Athanasios D. Fragkou
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, 38334 Volos, Greece
Thomas Stemler
Complex Systems Group, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
David M. Walker
Complex Systems Group, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
Yuchao Sun
Planning and Transport Research Centre (PATREC), University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
Theodoros Karakasidis
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, 38334 Volos, Greece
Eftihia Nathanail
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, 38334 Volos, Greece
Michael Small
ARC Training Centre for Transforming Maintenance Through Data Science, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
Non-recurrent congestion disrupts normal traffic operations and lowers travel time (TT) reliability, which leads to many negative consequences such as difficulties in trip planning, missed appointments, loss in productivity, and driver frustration. Traffic incidents are one of the six causes of non-recurrent congestion. Early and accurate detection helps reduce incident duration, but it remains a challenge due to the limitation of current sensor technologies. In this paper, we employ a recurrence-based technique, the Quadrant Scan, to analyse time series traffic volume data for incident detection. The data is recorded by multiple sensors along a section of urban highway. The results show that the proposed method can detect incidents better by integrating data from the multiple sensors in each direction, compared to using them individually. It can also distinguish non-recurrent traffic congestion caused by incidents from recurrent congestion. The results show that the Quadrant Scan is a promising algorithm for real-time traffic incident detection with a short delay. It could also be extended to other non-recurrent congestion types.
