ITS Devices Used to Collect Truck Data for Performance Benchmarks

Abstract

This paper documents the development of data collection methodologies that can be used to measure truck movements along specific roadway corridors in Washington State cost-effectively. The intent of this study was to design and test methodologies that could provide information to ascertain the performance of freight mobility roadway improvement projects. The benchmarks created would be used to report on speed and volume improvements that resulted from completed roadway projects. One technology tested consisted of Commercial Vehicle Information System and Networks electronic truck transponders, which were mounted on the windshields of approximately 30,000 trucks traveling in Washington. These transponders were used at weigh stations across the state to improve the efficiency of truck regulatory compliance checks. With transponder reads from sites anywhere in the state being linked through software, the transponder-equipped trucks can become a travel time probe fleet. The second technology tested involved Global Positioning Systems (GPS) placed in volunteer trucks to collect specific truck movement data at 5-s intervals. GPS data made it possible to locate when and where monitored trucks experienced congestion. With this information aggregated over time, it was possible to generate performance statistics related to the reliability of truck trips and even to examine changes in route choice for trips between high-volume origin–destination pairs. The study found that both data collection technologies could be useful; however, the key to either technology is whether enough instrumented vehicles pass over the roadways for which data are required.

Analysis of Travel Time Reliability for Freight Corridors Connecting the Pacific Northwest

“…Initial work at the University of Washington investigated the use of truck transponder data in providing link travel-time information (12). Following this work, the researchers found that both GPS and truck transponder technologies have the potential to estimate link travel times; however, a large number of vehicle observations are required and must incorporate methods for determining which trucks have stopped for deliveries, resting or refueling (13).…”

“…Researchers at the University of Washington acquired GPS data from many vehicles (commercial trucks) having infrequent readings and used these to estimate link travel time, develop freight performance measures and study before-and-after conditions where roadway improvements were made (13,17). The research team used spot speeds (the speed between two subsequent readings) to estimate measures of mobility.…”

Similarity-Based Compression of GPS Trajectory Data

“…This surge has generated a plethora of spatio-temporal data that many companies and organizations rely on for tracking their staff, customers, shipments, and vehicles [1], [2], [3]. This data is typically produced at a high rate.…”

Squish

“…These applications, often developed for mobile devices, utilize location information, such as the location of the person accessing the application, and commonly the location patterns of other users. Location-based service is an active area of research, encompassing applications such as supply-chain management, location detection and traffic modeling [11,6,8,15,9].…”