Available link level models for real-time application : a review : final report

The general objective of the START project (Simulation of Traffic for Application in Real-Time) is to develop a practical tool to predict traffic flows and travel times in real-time using the information provided by the Monitoring Casco together with historic and network information. First a brief discussion is given of the hierarchy of traffic models that can be discerned, the information input required by the START models, a discussion of which methods could potentially deliver this input within the START context. Available models for congestion detection, estimation of current road capacity, and estimation of delay time caused by a traffic jam are reviewed. A summary is given of methods which could be used in the START context to feed the START models with low-level traffic information, which is then integrated at network level. The integration of such models with the START system is discussed, and a composite link-travel time function is proposed to estimate and predict link travel time under all traffic conditions.