Development of a Prototype Dynamic Congestion and Incident Prediction System (0-4946-2)

This report is a summary of the process and procedures used to develop the Dynamic Congestion and Incident Prediction System (DCIPS). The DCIPS is a prototype tool designed to illustrate to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) the potential of having a tool to predict when and where traffic and environmental conditions might lead to the formation of incidents and congestion. In addition to the introduction, this report contains five major sections. The "System Design and Architecture" section describes the major components, architecture, and data flows associated with developing the DCIPS prototype tool. The "User's Guide" section provides instructions and procedures for installing, operating and interpreting the results of the prediction models contained in the DCIPS. The "Proof-of-Concept Testing" section describes how researchers used hardware-in-the-loop simulation to test the functionality and operation of the DCIPS prototype tool. The "Issues Affecting Implementation" section documents some of the data quality issues researchers encountered as they attempted to deploy the prototype system. The "Summary and Lessons Learned" section highlights some of the major findings from this research project as well as next steps for future research activities.