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Detection of traffic jam tails

Practical test assessing the information quality about traffic jam tails

The number of traffic jams in the road network will continue to rise, and so will the risk of rear-end collisions in traffic jams. Traffic jam tails on motorways are potentially dangerous, hence timely warnings of road users by road operators would significantly contribute to increasing road safety and improving traffic flow.

Such jam tail warnings require reliable detection of relevant events. Stationary detectors already installed by road operators can only detect jam tails to a limited extent. Analysis of vehicle-generated data is a viable alternative.

However, the nature and quality of vehicle-generated data must clarified before being used to detect traffic jam tails. This question has already been addressed in the previous project "Minimum requirements for currently available traffic jam tail data and concept for their practical testing in a test field". The current project now enables for the first time to implement and evaluate a practical field test in real operation conditions. The findings gained will be used to validate and refine the previously formulated minimum requirements for jam tail data such that it will enable the public sector to procure commercially available jam tail data via tenders.

This project  is carried out on behalf of the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) within the tender FE 03.0563/2017/FRB. Project partners: Rapp Trans, SLR Engineering