Study of Probe Sample Size Model in Probe Vehicle Technology

In this paper, market penetration of a probe vehicle for real-time traffic data collection is discussed. A new comprehensive probe sample size model that satisfies the need of traffic flow parameter estimation and traffic network coverage is established, in which many factors like location error, probe ‘report’ transmission interval, probe data analysis interval, traffic flow density, link length, and road type are included. Based on this model, this paper proves the relationship between market penetration of the probe vehicle and other indexes, when probe data is used for link average speed estimation based on VISSIM simulation. The simulation result shows that the sample size model can provide effective probe information to accomplish the estimation of link speed.