Improving traffic estimation and prediction through dynamic traffic assignment development

The FHWA R&D initiated a dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) research project in 1994 to meet these data needs and to address complex traffic control and management issues in the information-based, dynamic ITS environment. Under this project, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was designated as the manager for the development of a deployable, real-time traffic estimation and prediction system (TrEPS) as well as an offline, planning version (TrEPS-P). In October 1995, two contracts were awarded to teams from the University of Texas at Austin (UTX) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop these systems for use in ITS environments. To date, four sets of products have been developed, laboratory experiment completed, and the systems are being deployed.