Study of actual vehicle speeds using video surveillance data

Abstract

The article discusses methods for obtaining and analyzing the actual vehicles speed on the road sections. A comparative analysis of known methods of measuring speed shows that not all of them can be effectively used in scientific research due to the specific requirements for laboriousness and accuracy of measurement results. Video surveillance systems have become widespread on the street and road network of cities. This makes it possible to study the vehicles speed mode without the use of expensive equipment and specialized software. The method proposed in the article provides for the use of a video recording of the traffic flow on an urban road section and requires only a preliminary measurement of distances at the camera installation site using a laser rangefinder. The paper presents the results of a study of the actual vehicles speed on the two road network sections of the city of Kharkov. In particular, graphs of the distribution of vehicle speeds were obtained and the statistical characteristics of these distributions were calculated. The distributions of vehicle speeds turned out to be close to the normal law and showed a correlation between the statistical characteristics of the distributions and the functional purpose of the city streets. On the street section in the central part of the city, the average and modal vehicle speeds were lower than on the section of the main city street. It was also found that a significant proportion of drivers on the section of the main city street were driving in excess of the speed limit. These results confirmed the possibility of using the methodology proposed in the article to study vehicle speeds.

Keywords: road traffic, traffic speed, speed measurement, video recording processing