Advancing transportation data systems for timely information delivery and improved parameter estimation

加拿大和其他地方的公路机构和运输组织（例如，区域和都市规划办公室）将其预算和人力的很大一部分用于通过交通监测和旅行调查运动收集各种数据。所获得的数据广泛应用于交通规划、基础设施设计、运营分析、交通控制和业务开发。所得信息和估计参数的质量对于上述所有领域的明智决策至关重要。拟议的研究涉及旨在利用先进技术和计算技术改进数据收集和参数估计程序的研究。建议的研究包括发展现代地理信息系统/遥感（GIS/RS）系统，以有效和及时地支持运输方面的各项任务和决策；运用先进的科学和计算技术估算交通参数；用模拟技术检查公路机构使用的程序所产生的缺失数据的估计准确性；并将来自不同来源的数据进行耦合，以实现更准确的出行行为建模。通过这些研究，可以回答以下关于当前系统的问题，并可以开发更具成本效益的系统：如何在数据收集和运输决策中最好地使用最新的GIS/RS技术？如何制定更准确的程序来处理这些系统中经常遇到的丢失数据？能否采用先进技术更准确地估计交通参数？利用不同来源的数据和先进的技术能否得到更准确的参数？通过使用先进的技术，是否可以使用比传统指定的更少的数据来获得相同精度的参数？

Highway agencies and transportation organizations (e.g., regional and metropolitan planning offices) in Canada and elsewhere invest a significant portion of their budgets and manpower for collecting various data through traffic monitoring and travel survey campaigns. The data obtained are widely used in transportation planning, infrastructure design, operation analysis, traffic controls and business development. The quality of the derived information and estimated parameters is critical for wise decision-making in all of the above-noted areas.The proposed research involves studies aimed at improving the procedures of data collection and parameter estimation with advanced technologies and computing techniques. The proposed studies include developing a modern geographic information systems/remote sensing (GIS/RS) system to efficiently and timely support various tasks and decision-making in transportation; using advanced scientific and computing techniques to estimate traffic parameters; examining estimation accuracy of missing data resulting from the procedures used by highway agencies with simulation techniques; and coupling data from different sources for more accurate travel behavior modeling. Through these studies, the following questions regarding current systems can be answered and more cost-effective systems can be developed: How can the latest GIS/RS technologies be best used in data collection and transportation decision-making? How can more accurate procedures be developed to handle the missing data frequently encountered in these systems? Can advanced techniques be used to estimate traffic parameters more accurately? Can more accurate parameters be derived by using data from different sources and advanced techniques? By using advanced techniques, can less data be used than traditionally specified to obtain parameters with similar accuracy?