An Evaluation Method for the Estimated Travel Speed and Travel Time by Taxi Floating Car Data

Floating car data (FCD, also called probe vehicle, PV) system is a new and based on a certain percentage of all vehicles in the traffic which are equipped with a location and data communication device transmitting experienced traffic flow parameters to a traffic information center. Then the link travel status can be estimated using these large sample dada. In this paper, an evaluation and analysis method for FCD system in Ningbo was introduced. Firstly, a mathematical statistical method is used to compute the minimum probe vehicles number on one segmental road. Then, the original GPS data was analyzed on several aspects, including PV-GPS data coverage and average probe vehicle number of covered links. Based on the minimum probe vehicles number, we can evaluate overall quality of FCD system and improve it accordingly. Finally, the obtained traffic state information was validated with test drives of independent vehicles driving on a long loop route with many intersections. A valuable conclusion is obtained, and would be a valuable basis for developing FCD system in the further work.