"Development and Operations of a Travel Time Prediction System With Variable Message Signs for the Highway Network between Salisbury and Ocean City"
Gang-Len Chang - PI
Civil & Environmental Engineering
The primary objective of this study is to extend the travel time prediction system for MD90 and US50 between Salisbury and Ocean City with the Maryland Eastern Shore emergency evacuation system. After its completion, the integrated system based on 40 traffic detectors should have the following features:
Between Salisbury and Eastern Shore:
- Updating the information of the time-varying speed, occupancy, and flow rate along the target highway segments to the control center at an interval of 1 minute;
- Computing the predicted travel times for the current and future time intervals for the target highway segments in real time, and update the information at a pre-specified interval;
- Communicating the real-time observed traffic conditions and projected traffic patterns to the control center via an intelligent interface module;
- Displaying the projected traffic information via the set of roadside VMS devices and a specially-designed website; and
- Providing historical travel time information for different times of a day and different days of a week for analysis and travel information.
For the remaining networks in the Eastern Shore region:
- Detecting traffic volume, speed, and occupancy for all covered links in real time;
- Monitoring the evacuation flows during emergency evacuations or special events; and
- Providing feedback information for network traffic control operations.
The progress of this project can be tracked at:
