Finding the shortest path in huge data traffic networks: A hybrid speed model

The shortest path problem has become an important issue in the increasingly complex road networks nowadays, especially for these applications which are strict with high timeliness. However, searching the shortest path is difficult as road traffic flows are time-varying. An important issue in searching the shortest path is how to obtain the time expired on each segment at the given time. To this purpose, we propose a hybrid speed model to calculate the travel time in this paper, which considers the difference between the speed in congested and uncongested road networks. And analysis of speed in both conditions are given, respectively. Subsequently, a metric is also proposed to distinguish between congested and uncongested networks. Our work also utilizes the huge traffic data to reflect and analyze the real scenario. Compared to the previous work, this paper considers a more complex urban traffic scenario and some verifications are made with our data. Finally, a numerical study is carried out in the urban road network in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The results show the hybrid speed model can give travel time prediction in an accurate way and can provide useful information for road designers.