WO2023139651A1 - Congestion resolution location determination device and congestion resolution location determination method - Google Patents

Abstract

The purpose of the present disclosure is to determine a congestion resolution location at which congestion can be resolved at low cost and which has a high effect for improving congestion in a broad area without positioning a sensor or camera at each intersection or other measurement location. A congestion resolution location determination device (101A) according to the present disclosure comprises: a traffic status reproduction unit (12) for reproducing a traffic status on the basis of traffic information stored in a traffic information storage device (102A); a congestion location extraction unit (13) for extracting a plurality of congestion locations on the basis of the degree of congestion; a congestion factor degree calculation unit (14) for calculating a congestion factor degree on the basis of the amount of change in congestion factor at all road links in a subject area before and after resolution of congestion at the congestion locations; a congestion reduction cost calculation unit (15) for calculating a congestion reduction cost that is required in order to resolve congestion at the congestion locations; and a congestion resolution location determination unit (22) for determining at least one congestion location among the plurality of congestion locations as a congestion resolution location at which congestion is to be resolved, said determination being made on the basis of a congestion resolution evaluation value.

Description

Congestion-resolving point determination device and congestion-resolving point determination method

The technology of the present disclosure relates to determination of locations for resolving congestion.

Traffic congestion in urban areas not only causes time loss for road users, but also affects traffic safety. Therefore, resolving traffic congestion in urban traffic is a social issue, and traffic congestion is being predicted as part of efforts to solve the problem.

Conventionally, there are many methods for predicting congestion at a macro level using traffic volume. However, in recent years, the performance of computers has improved. In addition, traffic jams are triggered by events that cause congestion, such as waiting for left or right turns at intersections, deceleration on slopes, and parked vehicles. Therefore, prediction of traffic congestion at a micro level is also performed by analyzing roads or vehicles individually.

Patent Document 1 discloses a traffic monitoring device that determines the cause of traffic congestion by monitoring the surroundings of intersections with sensors or cameras, and calculates the priority of implementing countermeasures for resolving traffic congestion. Specifically, this traffic monitoring device determines whether or not there is traffic congestion for each of a plurality of lanes of a road that intersects the intersection, based on vehicle information relating to the running states of vehicles present in the vicinity of the intersection. In addition, the traffic monitoring device determines the cause of the traffic congestion on the lane determined to be congested based on additional information on objects other than vehicles near the intersection. In addition, the traffic monitoring device calculates the priority of implementing countermeasures for resolving congestion for each of a plurality of contiguous congested routes including a plurality of contiguous congested intersections. The smaller the resources required for countermeasures against the cause of congestion, the higher the priority of continuous congestion routes is calculated, making it possible to effectively use limited physical and human resources to efficiently eliminate congestion throughout the city.

WO2019/189152

In order to eliminate traffic congestion, it is necessary to remove the causes of traffic congestion. When congestion occurs in one place in a city, the effects often spread over a wider area. In addition, urban congestion often has multiple congestion factors. In addition, in urban traffic congestion, the extent to which the resolution of individual traffic congestion factors affects the improvement of traffic congestion in the entire traffic flow varies. In addition, for the state, local governments, or management companies that manage urban traffic, some congestion factors can be easily eliminated, while others are difficult to eliminate. Therefore, it is difficult to plan for congestion relief.

According to the traffic monitoring device of Patent Document 1, it is necessary to detect vehicle information regarding the running state of vehicles existing near the intersection and additional information regarding objects other than the vehicle existing near the intersection using a detection device such as a camera or a sensor. Therefore, in order to cover a large number of intersections where congestion may occur, a large number of detection devices and high-performance processing devices are required.

The present disclosure has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to resolve traffic congestion at low cost without arranging a sensor or camera at each measurement point such as an intersection, and to determine a traffic congestion elimination point that is highly effective in improving traffic congestion in a wide area.

The congestion resolution point determination device of the present disclosure includes a traffic information acquisition unit that acquires traffic information from a traffic information storage device that stores traffic information including road data of a target area and time-series position information of vehicles; a traffic situation reproduction unit that reproduces traffic conditions based on the traffic information; A congestion factor level calculation unit that calculates a congestion factor level that indicates the extent to which a congestion point affects traffic congestion in a target area based on the amount of change in congestion levels of all road links in the target area before and after the congestion at each congestion point is resolved; A congestion factor level calculation part that calculates a congestion reduction cost required to eliminate congestion at each congestion point; and a congestion resolution point determination unit that determines the location to be a congestion resolution point where congestion should be relieved.

According to the congestion relief point determination device of the present disclosure, it is possible to determine congestion relief points using traffic information stored in the traffic information storage device without arranging a sensor or camera for each measurement point such as an intersection. In addition, since the congestion relief point determination device of the present disclosure determines the congestion relief point based on the congestion relief evaluation value calculated based on the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost, the congestion relief point can relieve congestion at low cost and is highly effective in improving congestion in the target area. Objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent with the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.

1 is a configuration diagram of a utilization system of a traffic management system according to Embodiment 1; FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a traffic management system according to Embodiment 1; FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a table defining traffic congestion reduction costs for each road link and intersection; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a table defining traffic congestion reduction costs for each road link and intersection and for each vehicle; 5 is a flow chart showing processing of the traffic congestion elimination point determination device according to Embodiment 1; 7 is a flowchart showing processing of a congestion factor degree calculation unit according to Embodiment 1; 7 is a flow chart showing processing of a traffic congestion elimination point determination unit according to Embodiment 1; 2 is a configuration diagram of a traffic management system according to Embodiment 2; FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing processing of a traffic congestion elimination point determination device according to Embodiment 2; FIG. 11 is a configuration diagram of a traffic management system according to Embodiment 3; 10 is a flow chart showing processing of a traffic congestion elimination point determination device according to Embodiment 3; It is a figure which shows the update example of a traffic condition. FIG. 11 is a configuration diagram of a traffic management system according to Embodiment 4; It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of a traffic management system.

<A. Embodiment 1>
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system using a traffic management system 1001 according to each embodiment of the present disclosure. The traffic management system 1001 receives time information and location information of each vehicle 105 from each of a plurality of vehicles 105 traveling on the road via a communication network 104 such as a 4G or 5G mobile line. The time information and the position information of each vehicle 105 are acquired by utilizing roadside devices such as a camera, a car number recognition device, or a traffic counter, and in-vehicle devices such as ETC 2.0, car navigation systems, or drive recorders.

Information related to traffic flow or congestion output by the traffic management system 1001 is displayed on the congestion display device 103 . The traffic jam display device 103 is a device having a display function, such as a laptop computer (PC), a display, a smart phone, or a tablet.

It should be noted that the traffic management system 1001 may be configured so as not to be connected to the communication network 104 and to utilize the time information and the location information of each vehicle 105 stored in advance in the storage area. Further, the traffic management system 1001 may not be connected to the traffic congestion display device 103 and may store the processing results within the traffic management system 1001 . Also, the traffic management system 1001 may be constructed on a cloud server, or may be constructed on a device having a processing device such as a PC.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the traffic management system 1001A according to the first embodiment. A traffic management system 1001A corresponds to the traffic management system 1001 shown in FIG. A at the end of the reference numeral indicates that the traffic management system 1001A is according to the first embodiment.

The traffic management system 1001A is configured with a traffic jam elimination point determination device 101A and a traffic information storage device 102A.

The congestion resolution point determination device 101A is configured with a traffic information acquisition unit 11, a traffic situation reproduction unit 12, a congestion location extraction unit 13, a congestion factor calculation unit 14, a congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15, and a congestion resolution location determination unit 16.

The traffic information storage device 102A stores road data 51 and vehicle information 52. The road data 51 includes the shapes and link information of all roads in an area (hereinafter referred to as "target area") that is to be calculated by the congestion-resolving point determination device 101A. Data in the OpenStreetMap format and the like correspond to the road data 51 . The vehicle information 52 includes attributes of each vehicle 105 and time-series position information of each vehicle 105 . Attributes include vehicle type, license plate information, owner information, and the like. The position information of each vehicle 105 in the vehicle information 52 may be represented by latitude and longitude, or may be represented by two-dimensional coordinates in a certain limited area. The location information of each vehicle 105 may be collected from each vehicle 105 using VICS (registered trademark), ETC 2.0, or an Internet line, or may be collected using sensors placed on the road such as cameras, traffic counters, or license plate recognition devices.

The traffic information acquisition unit 11 reads and acquires the road data 51 and the vehicle information 52 from the traffic information storage device 102A, and transmits the acquired data to the traffic condition reproduction unit 12.

Using the road data 51 and vehicle information 52 received from the traffic information acquisition unit 11, the traffic condition reproduction unit 12 reproduces the traffic conditions by associating the road link information with the time-series position information of the vehicle 105. The traffic situation reproduced here is also called a first traffic situation in order to distinguish it from the traffic situation reproduced by the congestion factor calculation unit 14, which will be described later. Specifically, the traffic condition reproduction unit 12 calculates which road link each vehicle 105 is on at each time. Here, the traffic condition reproduction unit 12 may link the time-series position information of the vehicle 105 stored in the traffic information storage device 102A in advance with the road link information. Alternatively, the traffic condition reproduction unit 12 may predict the position of the vehicle 105 in the near future based on the time-series position information of the vehicle 105 stored in advance in the traffic information storage device 102A, and associate the predicted position information of the vehicle 105 with the road link information. According to the latter method, the traffic condition reproduction unit 12 can reproduce the traffic condition even when the time-series position information of the vehicle 105 is missing or when the area where the position information can be collected is limited. In order to predict the position of the vehicle 105, the traffic condition reproduction unit 12 may use the speed limit or shape of the road, or information reproduced by a traffic simulator such as SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility) containing information such as traffic lights, or a map application such as Google Maps.

The congestion point extraction unit 13 calculates the congestion degree of each road link in the traffic conditions reproduced by the traffic condition reproduction unit 12. The congestion degree of each road link is calculated, for example, from the average, moving average, or median speed of the vehicles 105 traveling on each road link within a predetermined time. The degree of congestion is expressed as a relative value, for example, with 0 indicating no traffic congestion and 100 indicating a vehicle speed of 0 km/h due to traffic congestion. The congestion point extracting unit 13 determines a road link in which the calculated degree of congestion exceeds a predetermined threshold as a road link in which congestion occurs, that is, a congestion link. The congested spot extraction unit 13 determines a congested link and an intersection adjacent to the congested link (hereinafter referred to as a “congested adjacent intersection”) as a congested spot. The congestion point extraction unit 13 extracts the position information of all the congestion points, and transmits the extraction result as a congestion point list to the congestion factor degree calculation unit 14 and the congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15 .

The congestion factor calculation unit 14 calculates the congestion factor for each congestion point in the congestion point list received from the congestion point extraction unit 13 and transmits the calculated congestion factor to the congestion resolution point determination unit 16 . The congestion factor calculation unit 14 calculates the congestion factor from the amount of change in the congestion level of the target area when the congestion at only the congestion location selected from the congestion location list is resolved.

The congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15 calculates the congestion reduction cost, which is the cost for resolving the congestion at each congestion location in the congestion location list received from the congestion location extraction unit 13 . A congestion reduction cost is determined in advance for each road link or road shape, and the congestion reduction cost calculator 15 calculates a congestion reduction cost for a congested location based on the congestion reduction cost for each road link or road shape.

The congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15 may hold a plurality of congestion reduction costs for one road link. For example, when an intersection is changed to an elevated grade crossing, traffic congestion is expected to be almost zero, but the time and cost are high. Therefore, the traffic congestion reduction cost associated with the grade crossing is largely determined. On the other hand, changing the lighting interval of the signal requires consideration of safety, but costs less in terms of time and money. Therefore, the traffic congestion reduction cost related to changing the lighting interval of the signal is set to be moderate. In addition, although the placement of signboards to encourage detours may have a small effect, the cost in terms of time and money is small. Therefore, the congestion reduction cost related to the placement of signboards is set small.

Fig. 3 shows a table that defines congestion reduction costs for each road link and intersection. If the connection reduction cost is individually set for all road links and intersections in the target area, the number of setting values may increase. Therefore, a reference value for connection reduction cost may be set according to the shape of road links or intersections, the number of lanes, or the like.

In the above, it was explained that the congestion factor degree calculation unit 14 and the congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15 calculate the congestion factor degree and the congestion reduction cost for each congestion point. A congested spot is a road segment that includes congested links and congested adjacent intersections. However, the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost may be calculated for each congestion factor in addition to the road segment. Here, the traffic jam factor includes the type of vehicles traveling in a traffic jam or an event. Vehicle types include small vehicles, large vehicles, local license plates, inter-city license plates, municipal vehicles, buses, taxis, trucks, emergency vehicles, and the like. Events include lane reduction due to construction or street parking. FIG. 4 shows a table defining congestion reduction costs for each intersection and each vehicle type.

The congestion relief point determination unit 16 calculates the congestion relief evaluation value of each congestion point based on the congestion factor of each congestion point calculated by the congestion factor calculation unit 14 and the congestion reduction cost of each congestion point calculated by the congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15. Then, based on the congestion elimination evaluation value, a congestion elimination point determination part 16 determines a congestion point where congestion can be eliminated at a low cost and has a large effect of eliminating congestion in the entire target area as a point where congestion should be eliminated, i.e., a congestion elimination point.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the processing of the traffic congestion elimination point determination device 101A. The processing of the traffic congestion elimination point determination device 101A will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, the traffic information acquisition unit 11 reads traffic information from the traffic information storage device 102A (step S101).

Next, the traffic situation reproduction unit 12 reproduces the first traffic situation based on the traffic information (step S102).

After that, the congestion point extraction unit 13 extracts the congestion point in the first traffic situation (step S103). The location information of all the congestion points extracted by the congestion point extraction unit 13 is transmitted to the congestion factor degree calculation unit 14 as a congestion point list.

Next, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 calculates the congestion factor of each congestion point (step S104).

After that, the congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15 calculates the congestion reduction cost of each congestion point (step S105). This step may be performed in any order with step S104.

Finally, the congestion resolving point determining unit 16 determines a congestion resolving point based on the degree of congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost (step S106).

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing of the congestion factor degree calculation unit 14, and shows the details of step S104 in FIG. The processing of the congestion factor degree calculation unit 14 will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 acquires a congestion location list from the congestion location extraction unit 13 (step S201). Then, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 selects one congestion point from the congestion point list (step S202).

Next, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 assumes that no congestion occurs at the congestion location selected in step S202, and changes the road data 51 and vehicle information 52 (step S203). Specifically, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 changes the vehicle information 52 on the assumption that the vehicle 105 travels at the speed limit of the road on a straight line and turns right or left at a normal speed at an intersection where the vehicle 105 is congested. If there is a traffic light at the congested location, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 assumes that the traffic signal does not exist, or assumes that the traffic signal switches between red and green at optimum intervals, and changes the road data 51.

After that, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 performs the same processing as the traffic condition reproduction unit 12 using the road data 51 and the vehicle information 52 changed in step S203, thereby reproducing the traffic condition under the condition that the congestion has been resolved at the selected congestion location (step S204). The traffic situation reproduced in this step is also called a second traffic situation to distinguish it from the first traffic situation reproduced by the traffic situation reproduction unit 12 .

Next, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 calculates the congestion levels of all road links in the target area in the second traffic condition (step S205). In this step, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 may calculate the congestion degree in the same way as the congestion location extraction unit 13 does.

After that, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 compares the congestion factor of each road link between the first traffic condition reproduced by the traffic condition reproduction unit 12 and the second traffic condition reproduced by itself in step S204, and calculates the congestion factor of the congestion point based on the difference (step S206). Here, the degree of congestion factor is, for example, the average value of the amount of change in the degree of congestion between the first traffic condition and the second traffic condition for all road links within the target area. Alternatively, the congestion factor may be the difference between the number of road links with a degree of congestion exceeding a predetermined threshold in the first traffic condition and the number of road links with a degree of congestion exceeding the threshold in the second traffic condition. Alternatively, the degree of congestion factor may be the difference between the integrated distance of the road link with the degree of congestion exceeding a predetermined threshold in the first traffic condition and the integrated distance of the road link with the degree of congestion exceeding the threshold in the second traffic condition.

Next, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 determines whether or not the congestion factors of all the congestion points listed in the congestion point list have been calculated (step S207). If there is a congestion point for which the congestion factor degree has not yet been calculated, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 performs the processes from step S202 to step S206 for the congestion factor to calculate the congestion factor.

After calculating the congestion factor degrees of all the congestion points, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 associates the information on the congestion points with the congestion factor degrees and transmits them to the congestion resolution point determination unit 16 (step S208).

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of the processing of the traffic congestion elimination point determination unit 16, and shows the details of step S106 in FIG. The processing of the traffic congestion elimination point determination unit 16 will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, the congestion resolving point determination unit 16 receives the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost of each congestion point (step S301).

Next, the congestion relief point determination unit 16 calculates a congestion relief evaluation value for each congestion point based on the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost (step S302). The traffic congestion elimination evaluation value is calculated, for example, by integrating the traffic congestion factor and the traffic congestion reduction cost. Let a be the normalized value of the degree of congestion factor in the range of 1 to 100, and let b be the value of normalized congestion reduction cost in the range of 1 to 100. The congestion elimination evaluation value is calculated as, for example, α*a+(1−α)*(100−b). Here, α is a value used for weighting the degree of congestion factor and congestion reduction cost, and 0<α<1.

Then, based on the congestion relief evaluation value, the congestion relief point determination unit 16 determines the congestion relief point as a congestion relief point (step S303). For example, the congestion relief point determining unit 16 determines the congestion relief point having the maximum congestion relief evaluation value as the congestion relief point. As a result, the congestion-resolving point determining unit 16 can determine a congestion-resolving point that can eliminate congestion at a congestion point at a low cost and that is highly effective in relieving traffic congestion in the entire target area.

The congestion relief point determination device 101A of Embodiment 1 includes a traffic information acquisition unit 11 that acquires traffic information from the traffic information storage device 102A that stores traffic information including road data 51 of the target area and time-series position information of the vehicle 105; a traffic situation reproduction unit 12 that reproduces traffic conditions based on the traffic information; a congestion point extraction unit 13 for extracting a plurality of congestion points based on the congestion degree, a congestion factor degree calculation unit 14 for calculating the degree of congestion factor representing the extent to which each congestion point affects traffic congestion in the target area based on the amount of change in the congestion degree of all road links in the target area before and after the congestion at each congestion point is resolved, a congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15 for calculating the congestion reduction cost required to eliminate the congestion at each congestion point, a congestion relief point determination part 16 for calculating a congestion relief evaluation value representing a degree of congestion and determining one congestion relief point among a plurality of congestion relief points as a congestion relief point to be relieved based on the congestion relief evaluation value. With the above configuration, according to the congestion relief point determination device 101A, even without preparing a sensor or camera for monitoring vehicles or other objects for each intersection, it is possible to specify a congestion relief point that effectively improves traffic flow in urban traffic in a wide area at low cost.

<B. Embodiment 2>
FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a traffic management system 1001B according to Embodiment 2. As shown in FIG. The traffic management system 1001B corresponds to the traffic management system 1001 shown in FIG. The B at the end of the reference numeral indicates that the traffic management system 1001B is according to the first embodiment.

Compared to the configuration of the traffic management system 1001A according to Embodiment 1, the traffic management system 1001B includes a congestion resolution point determination unit 22 instead of the congestion resolution location determination unit 16, and further includes a congestion resolution determination unit 21, a congestion resolution location determination unit 22, a traffic situation update unit 23, and a congestion resolution plan determination unit 24.

The congestion resolution point determination unit 22 calculates a congestion resolution evaluation value for each congestion location based on the congestion factor and congestion reduction cost of each congestion location, like the congestion resolution location determination unit 16 of the first embodiment. Further, the congestion relief point determination unit 22 sets the congestion relief point as a congestion relief point based on the congestion relief evaluation value of each congestion relief point, and transmits the congestion relief point to the traffic condition updating unit 23 .

The traffic condition updating unit 23 updates the traffic conditions with the second traffic situation calculated by the congestion factor calculation unit 14, that is, the traffic condition under the condition that the congestion has been resolved at the congestion resolution point set by the congestion resolution point determining unit 22, as a new traffic situation.

In addition to the processing of the congestion location extraction unit 13 in Embodiment 1, the congestion location extraction unit 13 performs the following processing. That is, the congestion point extraction unit 13 calculates the congestion degree of each road link in the traffic condition updated by the traffic condition update unit 23, determines a road link whose congestion degree exceeds a predetermined threshold as a congestion link, determines a congestion link and a congested adjacent intersection as a congestion location, and transmits a congestion location list to the congestion factor calculation unit 14 and the congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15.

The congestion resolution determination unit 21 calculates the overall congestion degree, which is the congestion degree of the entire target area, from the congestion degree of each road link calculated by the congestion point extraction unit 13 . The overall congestion degree is represented by, for example, the average value or median value of the congestion degree of each road link included in the target area. The congestion resolution determination unit 21 determines whether the overall congestion degree satisfies a target, that is, whether it is less than a predetermined target value.

When the congestion resolution determination unit 21 determines that the overall congestion degree is less than the target value, this means that the congestion in the entire target area is sufficiently resolved by resolving the congestion at the congestion resolution location set by the congestion resolution location determination unit 22. Therefore, the congestion relief plan determination unit 24 determines a plan to relieve congestion at the congestion relief location set by the congestion relief location determination unit 22 as the congestion relief plan.

On the other hand, if the congestion resolution determination unit 21 determines that the overall congestion degree is equal to or higher than the target value, this means that even if the congestion at the congestion resolution location set by the congestion resolution location determination unit 22 is resolved, the congestion in the entire target area is not sufficiently resolved. Therefore, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 and the congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15 calculate the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost of each congestion location under the second traffic situation related to the congestion resolution location, that is, the traffic condition under the condition that the congestion at the congestion resolution location is assumed to have been resolved. Then, the congestion resolving point determination unit 22 sets the next congestion resolving point based on the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost of each congestion point.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the processing of the traffic jam elimination point determination device 101B. The flow of FIG. 9 is obtained by adding steps S401, S402, S403 and S404 to the flow of FIG. The processing of the traffic congestion elimination point determination device 101B will be described below with reference to FIG.

　Steps S101 to S106 are the same as those of the congestion elimination point determination device 101A. After the congestion resolution point determination unit 22 determines the congestion resolution location in step S106, the traffic condition updating unit 23 updates the traffic conditions with the second traffic condition related to the congestion resolution location set in step S106 (step S401). In other words, the traffic conditions updated in this step are the traffic conditions under the assumption that the congestion has been resolved at the congestion resolution point.

Next, the congestion spot extracting unit 13 extracts congestion spots in the target area under the new traffic conditions updated in step S401 (step S402). In this step, the congestion point extraction unit 13 calculates the degree of congestion of each road link in the target area, determines road links whose congestion degree exceeds a predetermined threshold as congestion links, determines congestion links and congested adjacent intersections as congestion locations, and creates a congestion location list including position information of each congestion location.

After that, the congestion resolution determination unit 21 calculates the congestion level of the target area based on the congestion level of each road link in the target area calculated in step S402, and determines whether the congestion level of the target area is less than a predetermined target value (step S403). In this step, the congestion resolution determination unit 21 determines whether or not the congestion resolution degree of the target area achieves the target by resolving the congestion at the congestion resolution point.

If the degree of congestion in the target area is less than the target value in step S403, this means that the degree of congestion resolution in the target area achieves the target by eliminating congestion at the congestion resolution point. Therefore, the congestion relief plan determination unit 24 determines a plan to relieve congestion at all the congestion relief locations set by the congestion relief location determination unit 22 as a congestion relief plan (step S404).

On the other hand, if the degree of congestion in the target area is equal to or higher than the target value in step S403, this means that the degree of congestion resolution in the target area will not reach the target even if the congestion at the congestion resolution point is resolved. Therefore, the processing of the congestion relief point determination device 101B returns to step S104, and additional congestion relief points are determined under the updated traffic conditions (step S106).

In addition to the configuration of Embodiment 1, the traffic congestion relief point determination device 101B according to Embodiment 2 further includes a traffic situation updating unit 23 that updates the traffic situation under the condition that the traffic congestion at the congestion relief point is resolved, and a congestion resolution degree determination unit 21 that calculates the overall congestion degree, which is the congestion degree of the entire target area, based on the congestion degree of each road link in the updated traffic situation, and determines whether or not the overall congestion degree is less than a predetermined target value. Further, when the overall congestion degree is equal to or higher than the target value, the congestion point extraction unit 13 extracts a plurality of congestion points in the updated traffic situation, the congestion factor calculation unit 14 calculates the congestion factor degree of each congestion point, the congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15 calculates the congestion reduction cost of each congestion point, the congestion relief point determination unit 16 calculates the congestion relief evaluation value based on the congestion factor degree and the congestion reduction cost of each congestion point, and determines additional congestion relief points based on the congestion relief evaluation value. Therefore, in the traffic management system 1001B, if the degree of congestion in the target area cannot reach the target value even if the congestion is relieved at one congestion relief point, the congestion relief point determination unit 22 can additionally set a plurality of congestion relief points until the target value is achieved. Therefore, in the second embodiment, it is possible to establish a plan to alleviate traffic congestion in the target area to a greater extent than in the first embodiment.

<C. Embodiment 3>
<C-1. Configuration>
FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of a traffic management system 1001C according to the third embodiment. A traffic management system 1001C corresponds to the traffic management system 1001 shown in FIG. The C at the end of the reference numeral indicates that the traffic management system 1001C is according to the third embodiment.

Compared to the traffic management system 1001A according to Embodiment 1, the traffic management system 1001C includes a traffic situation reproduction unit 31 and a congestion point extraction unit 33 instead of the traffic situation reproduction unit 12 and the congestion point extraction unit 13, and further includes a traffic situation storage unit 32, a congestion resolution degree determination unit 34, a congestion resolution location candidate setting unit 35, a candidate-by-candidate traffic condition update unit 36, an updated traffic condition storage unit 37, a congestion resolution plan storage unit 38, and a congestion resolution plan storage unit 39. .

In addition to the processing of the traffic condition reproduction unit 12 of Embodiment 1, the traffic condition reproduction unit 31 performs processing to store information linking road link information and time-series vehicle position information, which is the reproduced traffic condition, in the traffic condition storage unit 32.

In addition to the processing of the congestion point extraction unit 13 of Embodiment 1, the congestion point extraction unit 33 performs processing of reading the input traffic conditions or updated traffic conditions from the traffic condition storage unit 32 . The traffic congestion point extraction unit 33 reads out one traffic situation or updated traffic situation in one process, and extracts a traffic congestion point for one traffic situation or updated traffic situation. When there are no more traffic conditions or updated traffic conditions to be read into the traffic condition storage unit 32, the traffic congestion spot extraction unit 33 completes the processing.

The congestion resolution point candidate setting unit 35 receives the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost of each congestion location, and calculates the congestion resolution evaluation value of each congestion location, in the same way as the congestion resolution location determination unit 16 of the first embodiment. Then, the congestion resolving point candidate setting unit 35 sets all the congestion resolving point candidates whose congestion resolving evaluation values are equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold as congestion resolving point candidates, and transmits the congestion resolving point candidates to the traffic condition updating unit 23 . There may be a plurality of congestion-resolving point candidates. If there is no congestion location where the congestion resolution evaluation value is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value, the congestion resolution location candidate setting unit 35 terminates the processing for the reproduced traffic conditions in that case.

The candidate-by-candidate traffic condition updating unit 36 performs the same processing as the traffic condition updating unit 23 of Embodiment 2 on each congestion resolving point candidate received from the congestion resolving point candidate setting unit 35 to update the traffic situation. That is, the candidate-by-candidate traffic condition update unit 36 updates the traffic condition assuming that the congestion has been resolved at the congestion-relieving location candidate. The traffic conditions updated here are referred to as updated traffic conditions. There are as many updated traffic conditions as there are candidates for congestion relief points. The candidate traffic condition updating unit 36 transmits the updated traffic condition to the updated traffic condition storage unit 37 .

The updated traffic condition storage unit 37 stores all updated traffic conditions received from the candidate traffic condition update unit 36 in the traffic condition storage unit 32 .

Like the congestion resolution determination unit 21 of Embodiment 2, the congestion resolution determination unit 34 calculates the overall congestion level, which is the congestion level of the entire target area, from the congestion level of each road link calculated by the congestion point extraction unit 13 for each traffic condition and updated traffic condition. The congestion resolution level determination unit 34 determines whether the congestion level of the entire target area meets the target, that is, whether it is less than a predetermined threshold value.

When the congestion resolution determination unit 34 determines that the overall congestion degree is less than the threshold value, this means that the congestion in the entire target area is sufficiently resolved by resolving the congestion at the congestion resolution candidate location set by the congestion resolution location candidate setting unit 35. Therefore, the congestion relief plan storage unit 38 stores the traffic conditions or updated traffic conditions received from the congestion resolution determination unit 34 in the congestion relief plan storage unit 39 as a congestion relief plan. In other words, the congestion resolving plan storage unit 38 determines the congestion resolving point candidate when the overall congestion degree is less than the threshold as the congestion resolving point. That is, in Embodiment 3, the congestion relief point candidate setting unit 35 and the congestion relief plan storage unit 38 function as a congestion relief location determination unit.

On the other hand, if the congestion resolution determination unit 34 determines that the overall congestion degree is equal to or greater than the threshold value, this means that even if the congestion at the congestion resolution candidate location set by the congestion resolution location candidate setting unit 35 is resolved, the congestion in the entire target area is not sufficiently resolved. Therefore, the congestion factor degree calculation unit 14 and the congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15 calculate the congestion factor degree and the congestion reduction cost of each congestion location under the second traffic situation related to the congestion resolution location candidate set by the congestion resolution location candidate setting unit 35, that is, under the traffic condition under the condition that the congestion at the congestion resolution location candidate has been resolved. Then, the congestion resolving point candidate setting unit 35 sets additional congestion resolving point candidates based on the degree of congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost of each congestion point.

According to this configuration, as shown in FIG. 11, the congestion elimination point determination device 101C can repeat the process of creating a plurality of patterns of updated traffic conditions from the base traffic conditions, and further creating a plurality of patterns of updated traffic conditions for each of the plurality of updated traffic conditions. Therefore, the traffic congestion relief point determination device 101C can search for traffic conditions in which the degree of congestion in the target area is less than the threshold from among these multiple patterns of updated traffic conditions, thereby reducing the possibility that the congestion relief plan falls into a local solution in terms of efficiency. Therefore, according to the congestion relief point determination device 101C, it is possible to create a plan for efficiently relieving the degree of congestion.

In Embodiment 3, the congestion resolving point candidate setting unit 35 determines a plurality of congestion resolving point candidates, which are candidates for a congestion resolving point, from among a plurality of congestion resolving points, based on the congestion relief evaluation value of each congestion point. The candidate-by-candidate traffic condition updating unit 36 updates the traffic condition for each congestion-resolving point candidate under the condition that the congestion at the congestion-releasing point candidate has been resolved. The congestion resolution determination unit 34 determines whether or not the overall congestion resolution is less than a target value for each congestion resolution location candidate. The congestion resolving point candidate setting unit 35 determines additional congestion resolving point candidates until the overall congestion degree becomes less than the target value for each resolving point candidate. The congestion resolving plan storage unit 38 determines the congestion resolving point candidate and the additional congestion resolving point candidate as the congestion resolving point when the overall congestion degree is less than the target value. Therefore, according to the congestion relief point determination device 101C of Embodiment 3, it is possible to reduce the possibility that the congestion relief plan falls into a local optimum in terms of efficiency, and to output a plan for relieving congestion more efficiently.

<D. Embodiment 4>
FIG. 12 is a configuration diagram of a traffic management system 1001D according to the fourth embodiment. Traffic management system 1001D corresponds to traffic management system 1001 shown in FIG. D at the end of the reference numeral indicates that the traffic management system 1001D is according to the fourth embodiment.

The traffic management system 1001D is configured with a traffic jam elimination point determination device 101D, a traffic information storage device 102B, and an environment information acquisition unit 41.

The traffic congestion resolving point determining device 101D has the same configuration as the traffic congestion resolving point determining device 101A of the first embodiment.

The environment information acquisition unit 41 acquires the environment information 53 from the cloud through the Internet or the like, and stores it in the traffic information storage device 102B. Environmental information includes weather information for each time zone or area, or event information.

The traffic information storage device 102B stores environment information 53 in addition to road data 51 and vehicle information 52.

The traffic information acquisition unit 11 of the congestion resolution location determination device 101A reads road data 51, vehicle information 52, and environment information 53 from the traffic information storage device 102B. The traffic information acquisition unit 11 may narrow down the road data 51 and vehicle information 52 to be acquired based on the environment information 53 .

The traffic condition reproduction unit 12 uses the environment information 53 when reproducing traffic conditions. As a result, it is possible to avoid the mixed processing of traffic information showing unusual traffic flow such as rain, heavy snow, or a busy event, and traffic information for normal times. Therefore, according to the traffic management system 1001D according to the fourth embodiment, it is possible to determine the traffic congestion elimination point in line with the actual traffic conditions more than the configuration of the first embodiment.

In the congestion-resolving point determination device 101D of Embodiment 4, the traffic information includes environmental information acquired from the cloud, and the environmental information includes weather information or event information by time zone or region. Therefore, according to the traffic congestion elimination point determination device 101D, it is possible to avoid mixed processing of traffic information showing unusual traffic flow such as rain, heavy snow, and congestion event and traffic information of normal time, so that it is possible to estimate the cause of traffic congestion more realistically.

<E. Hardware Configuration>
Traffic information acquisition unit 11, traffic situation reproduction units 12 and 31, congestion location extraction units 13 and 33, congestion factor calculation unit 14, congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15, congestion resolution location determination units 16 and 22, congestion resolution determination units 21 and 34, traffic condition update unit 23, congestion resolution plan determination unit 24, traffic condition storage unit 32, congestion resolution location candidate setting unit 35, traffic condition update unit 36 for each candidate, and updated traffic The situation storage unit 37, the congestion resolution plan storage unit 38, and the congestion resolution plan storage unit 39 are realized by the processing circuit 81 shown in FIG. That is, the processing circuit 81 includes a traffic information acquisition unit 11, traffic condition reproduction units 12 and 31, congestion location extraction units 13 and 33, congestion factor level calculation unit 14, congestion reduction cost calculation unit 15, congestion resolution location determination units 16, 22 and 35, congestion resolution determination units 21 and 34, traffic condition update unit 23, congestion resolution plan determination unit 24, traffic condition storage unit 32, updated traffic condition storage unit 37, congestion resolution plan storage unit 38, and congestion resolution plan storage unit 39. (hereinafter referred to as a traffic information acquisition unit 11, etc.). Dedicated hardware may be applied to the processing circuit 81, or a processor that executes a program stored in a memory may be applied. The processor is, for example, a central processing unit, a processing unit, an arithmetic unit, a microprocessor, a microcomputer, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), or the like.

When the processing circuit 81 is dedicated hardware, the processing circuit 81 is, for example, a single circuit, a composite circuit, a programmed processor, a parallel programmed processor, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), or a combination thereof. Each function of each unit such as the traffic information acquisition unit 11 may be realized by a plurality of processing circuits 81, or the functions of each unit may be collectively realized by one processing circuit.

When the processing circuit 81 is a processor, the functions of the traffic information acquisition unit 11 and the like are realized by a combination of software and the like (software, firmware, or software and firmware). Software or the like is written as a program and stored in memory. As shown in FIG. 14, a processor 82 applied to a processing circuit 81 reads out and executes a program stored in a memory 83 to realize the function of each section. That is, when executed by the processing circuit 81, the congestion relief point determination device acquires traffic information from the traffic information storage device 102A that stores traffic information including the road data 51 of the target area and time-series position information of the vehicle 105; reproduces traffic conditions based on the traffic information; a step of extracting based on the degree of congestion; a step of calculating a degree of congestion factor representing the extent to which each congestion point affects traffic congestion in the target area based on the amount of change in the degree of congestion of all road links in the target area before and after the congestion is resolved at each congestion point; a step of calculating a congestion reduction cost required to eliminate congestion at each congestion point; A memory 83 is provided for storing a program that results in the execution of a step of determining one congestion location as a congestion resolution location where congestion should be relieved. In other words, it can be said that this program causes a computer to execute the procedure or method of the traffic information acquisition unit 11 and the like. Here, the memory 83 is, for example, RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory), flash memory, EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), non-volatile or volatile semiconductor memory, HDD (Hard Disk Drive), magnetic disk, flexible disk, optical disk, compact disk, mini disk, DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) and its drive It may be a device, etc., or any storage medium that will be used in the future.

The configuration in which each function of the traffic information acquisition unit 11 and the like is realized by either hardware or software has been described above. However, the configuration is not limited to this, and a configuration in which part of the traffic information acquisition unit 11 and the like is realized by dedicated hardware and another part is realized by software or the like may be employed.

As described above, the processing circuit can implement each of the functions described above using hardware, software, etc., or a combination thereof.

It should be noted that it is possible to freely combine each embodiment, and to modify or omit each embodiment as appropriate. The above description is, in all aspects, exemplary. It is understood that a myriad of variations not illustrated may be envisioned.

11 Traffic information acquisition unit 12 Traffic situation reproduction unit 13 Congestion location extraction unit 14 Congestion factor degree calculation unit 15 Congestion reduction cost calculation unit 16 Congestion resolution point determination unit 21 Congestion resolution level determination unit 22 Congestion resolution location determination unit 23 Traffic situation update unit 24 Congestion resolution plan determination unit 31 Traffic situation reproduction unit 32 Traffic situation storage unit 33 Congestion location extraction unit 34 Congestion resolution determination unit 3 5 Congestion resolution point candidate setting unit 36 Traffic condition update unit for each candidate 37 Updated traffic condition storage unit 38 Congestion resolution plan storage unit 39 Congestion resolution plan storage unit 41 Environment information acquisition unit 51 Road data 52 Vehicle information 53 Environment information 81 Processing circuit 82 Processor 83 Memory 101A, 101B, 101C, 101D Congestion resolution location determination device 102A, 102B Traffic information storage device, 103 Congestion display device, 104 Communication network, 105 Vehicles, 1001, 1001A, 1001B, 1001C, 1001D Traffic management system.

Claims (9)

a traffic information acquisition unit that acquires the traffic information from a traffic information storage device that stores traffic information including road data of a target area and time-series position information of vehicles;
a traffic situation reproduction unit that reproduces traffic conditions based on the traffic information;
a congested spot extracting unit that calculates a congestion degree of each road link included in the road data in the traffic condition, and extracts a plurality of congested spots including congested links that are the congested road links and congested adjacent intersections adjacent to the congested links based on the congestion degree;
a congestion factor degree calculation unit that calculates a congestion factor degree representing the extent to which each of the congestion points affects traffic congestion in the target area, based on an amount of change in congestion levels of all the road links in the target area before and after the congestion at each of the congestion points is resolved;
a congestion reduction cost calculation unit that calculates a congestion reduction cost required to eliminate congestion at each of the congestion locations;
a congestion relief point determination unit that calculates a congestion relief evaluation value representing the priority of congestion relief at each congestion point based on the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost of each of the congestion points, and determines at least one of the plurality of congestion relief points as a congestion relief point at which congestion should be relieved, based on the congestion relief evaluation value;
Congestion elimination point determination device. The traffic congestion reduction cost is calculated based on a preset value for the road link or intersection that constitutes each traffic congestion point,
2. The traffic jam elimination point determination device according to claim 1. The set value is determined for each event that causes congestion for the road link or the intersection that constitutes each congestion point,
3. The traffic congestion elimination point determination device according to claim 2. a traffic situation updating unit that updates the traffic situation under conditions where the traffic congestion at the congestion resolution point is resolved;
a congestion resolution level determination unit that calculates the overall congestion level, which is the congestion level of the entire target area, based on the congestion level of each of the road links in the updated traffic condition, and determines whether the overall congestion level is less than a predetermined target value;
In the updated traffic situation when the overall congestion degree is equal to or greater than the target value,
The congestion point extracting unit extracts the plurality of congestion points,
The congestion factor degree calculation unit calculates the congestion factor degree of each of the congestion points,
The congestion reduction cost calculation unit calculates the congestion reduction cost of each of the congestion locations,
The congestion resolution point determination unit calculates the congestion resolution evaluation value based on the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost of each congestion location, and determines the additional congestion resolution location based on the congestion resolution evaluation value.
4. The traffic congestion elimination point determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The traffic congestion elimination point determination unit,
determining, from among the plurality of congestion locations, a plurality of congestion resolution location candidates, which are candidates for the congestion resolution location, based on the congestion resolution evaluation value of each congestion location;
The traffic situation updating unit updates the traffic situation for each of the congestion-resolving point candidates under the condition that the congestion at the congestion-relieving point candidate is resolved,
The congestion resolution level determination unit determines whether the overall congestion level is less than the target value for each of the congestion resolution location candidates,
The congestion resolving point determination unit determines additional congestion resolving point candidates for each of the congestion resolving point candidates until the overall congestion degree becomes less than the target value, and when the overall congestion degree is less than the target value, determines the congestion resolving point candidate and the additional congestion resolving point candidate as the congestion resolving point.
5. The traffic congestion elimination point determination device according to claim 4. The time-series location information of the vehicle stored in the traffic information storage device is information received from a device mounted on the vehicle or a sensor placed on the road in the target area.
The traffic congestion elimination point determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 5. The congestion resolution location determined by the congestion resolution location determination unit is displayed from the congestion factor display device,
The traffic congestion elimination point determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 6. the traffic information includes environmental information obtained from the cloud;
The environmental information includes weather information or event information by time zone or region,
The traffic congestion elimination point determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 7. Acquiring the traffic information from a traffic information storage device that stores traffic information including road data of the target area and time-series position information of the vehicle;
reproduce traffic conditions based on the traffic information;
calculating the congestion degree of each road link included in the road data in the traffic condition;
extracting a plurality of congested spots including congested links, which are the road links in congested traffic, and congested adjacent intersections adjacent to the congested links, based on the degree of congestion;
calculating a degree of congestion factor representing the extent to which each congestion point affects traffic congestion in the target area based on the amount of change in the congestion degree of all the road links in the target area before and after the congestion at each congestion point is resolved;
Calculate the congestion reduction cost necessary to eliminate congestion at each of the congestion points,
Based on the congestion factor and the congestion reduction cost of each of the congestion locations, a congestion resolution evaluation value representing the priority of congestion resolution of each of the congestion locations is calculated, and based on the congestion resolution evaluation value, at least one of the plurality of congestion locations is determined as a congestion resolution location where congestion should be resolved.
Congestion elimination point determination method.

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