Real-time road traffic states estimation based on kernel-KNN matching of road traffic spatial characteristics

The accurate estimation of road traffic states can provide decision making for travelers and traffic managers. In this work, an algorithm based on kernel-k nearest neighbor (KNN) matching of road traffic spatial characteristics is presented to estimate road traffic states. Firstly, the representative road traffic state data were extracted to establish the reference sequences of road traffic running characteristics (RSRTRC). Secondly, the spatial road traffic state data sequence was selected and the kernel function was constructed, with which the spatial road traffic data sequence could be mapped into a high dimensional feature space. Thirdly, the referenced and current spatial road traffic data sequences were extracted and the Euclidean distances in the feature space between them were obtained. Finally, the road traffic states were estimated from weighted averages of the selected k road traffic states, which corresponded to the nearest Euclidean distances. Several typical links in Beijing were adopted for case studies. The final results of the experiments show that the accuracy of this algorithm for estimating speed and volume is 95.27% and 91.32% respectively, which prove that this road traffic states estimation approach based on kernel-KNN matching of road traffic spatial characteristics is feasible and can achieve a high accuracy.