Prediction of Road Traffic using a Neural Network Approach

A key component of the daily operation and planning activities of a traffic control centre is short-term forecasting, i.e. the prediction of daily to the next few days of traffic flow. Such forecasts have a significant impact on the optimal regulation of the road traffic on all kinds of freeways. They are increasingly important in an environment with increasing road traffic problems. The present paper aims at presenting the effectiveness of a neural network system for prediction based on time-series data. We only use one parameter, namely traffic volume for the forecasting. We employ artificial neural networks for traffic forecasting applied on a road section. Recurrent Jordan networks, popular in the modelling of time series, is examined in this study. Simulation results demonstrate that learning with this type of architecture has a good generalisation ability.