Traffic density determination and its applications using smartphone

Smartphone is progressively becoming a dominant platform for many transportation applications. This paper introduces a new application for using smartphones to measure traffic density and speed. The proposed system consists of two smartphones and two cars, with observer to count vehicles between the two cars. This count is utilized with tracking data to give “measured” density and “measured” speed. The travel speed and manual traffic counts were used to derive “calculated” density. Measured density was validated against calculated one, and statistical t-test confirmed that the mean difference between two densities is not significant at 5% level. Calculated flow rates were also comparable to actual counts, with an average error of 8.2%. The proposed system was then applied to measure density on 6 of October Elevated Road in Egypt, and the level of service was determined accordingly on 15 road sections studied on this road. Furthermore, actual speed-density data were fitted using exponential model with R2 of 0.85. Advantages of proposed system qualify it for potential applications in developing countries where available resources limit installation of more costly systems. The application of proposed system is limited to daytime, uninterrupted flow conditions, and traffic streams with less percentage of heavy vehicles.