Comparison of traffic reliability index with real traffic data

Abstract

Abstract Existing studies have developed different indices based on various approaches including network connectivity, delay time and flow capacity, estimating the traffic reliability states from different angles. However, these indices mainly estimate traffic reliability from single view and rarely consider the combined effect of city traffic dynamics and underlying network structure. Based on percolation theory, Li et al. has developed a traffic reliability index to address this issue (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 112(3):669-672, 2015) [1]. Here we compare this percolation-based index with one of the well-known index - congestion delay index (CDI). Using real traffic data of Beijing and Shenzhen (two large cities in China), we compare the two indices in the macroscopic trends and microscopic extreme values. The two indices are found to indicate the state of real-time traffic reliability in different consideration. Our results can be used for better evaluation of traffic system reliability and mitigation measures of traffic jams.

Keywords

• traffic reliability
• reliability index
• percolation theory
• traffic data