Researchers
Stephen Andrle
About the research
The purpose of this project is to collect video images of traffic at locations throughout the state of Iowa. The locations will be defined by the Engineering Division of the Iowa DOT. The video image collection may involve the use of one or two trailers, depending on the situation. Each trailer has two black and white video cameras mounted on a 30 foot pneumatic boom and two high fidelity VHS format video tape records. After videos of traffic are made, the videos may either be viewed and interpreted by a trained observer to allow Iowa DOT engineers to better understand traffic operations at that location, or using video image processing technology, numerically quantify the performance of traffic flow (e.g., speed, volume, and density of traffic).
All video images collected will e archived. Traffic flow performance data to be reduced from videotapes for traffic simulation modeling and traffic engineering purposes will be reduced and summarized immediately following the taping. These data will be summarized in a format appropriate for analysis. All summary data will be archived in a standard electronic format (e.g., Excel spreadsheet).