Graph-Based Vehicle Traffic Modelling

for More Efficient Road Lighting

Sebastian Ernst, Konrad Komnata(B) , Marek L

 abuz, and Kamila Środa

Department of Applied Computer Science, AGH University of Science

and Technology, Al.Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
{ernst,kkomnata,mlabuz,ksroda}@agh.edu.pl

Abstract. Road traffic is one of the primary characteristics of modern

cities. It affects the travel time, which is used by navigation and route
planning systems. However, traffic flow can also be modelled with regard
to the number of vehicles. This approach can be applied e.g. to dynamic
adjustment of street lighting intensity, provided the data is available and
comes from a reliable source. This paper proposes a new model – the
Traffic Flow Graph – which can be used to represent measurable flows
of vehicles. It can be used to verify the reliability of sensor data and to
broaden area of dynamic street lighting, to streets without precise traffic
detectors. The obtained values allowed the application of dynamic street
lighting control, which resulted in 13.8% of energy savings in the road
under consideration.

Keywords: Traffic flow · Graph · Road traffic · Smart city

1 Introduction and Motivation

Road traffic is one of the most significant issues in modern cities, in two aspects.
On one hand – obviously – traffic congestions hamper travel, which affects com-
muters, companies and tourists. On the other hand, knowledge of traffic charac-
teristics can – and should – be part of the decisions made by the city authorities
and technical departments.
One real-life example, which is not so obvious, is related to road and street
lighting. Energy needed for lighting constitutes almost a fifth of the power
consumed by the urban infrastructure, and therefore is a significant contrib-
utor to the city’s regular expenses [7]. This issue can be optimised using many
approaches [9], but one of them – dynamic control of luminaire intensity using
sensor data – is not yet widely exploited. Research has shown that introduction
of such systems can reduce energy consumption up to 34% [10].
However, as traffic intensity is one of the most important factors used by such
systems, it is crucial to provide accurate and dependable data. The traffic sensor
infrastructure in cities is often sparse, which means that only a small portion of
streets can be equipped with dynamic lighting control. For instance, due to this
c Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Zamojski et al. (Eds.): DepCoS-RELCOMEX 2019, AISC 987, pp. 186–194, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19501-4_18
 Graph-Based Vehicle Traffic Modelling for More Efficient Road Lighting 187

problem, in a pilot project in a large city in Poland, carried out on an area of

two districts and including almost 4,000 fixtures, dynamic control was possible
in only 15% of the streets.
One might argue, of course, that traffic data is widely used in online maps
and navigation devices. However, there are two issues. First, while the data is
usually accurate and very complete, the sources for the fused data is usually
not disclosed – and one may not wish to use it to control the city infrastructure.
The data must be reliable and dependable, which means it should originate from
official sensors, and also provide means for validation of their accuracy. Second,
the data is profiled for route planning – and therefore focuses on the travel time,
not on the number of vehicles, which is the basis for lighting class determination
according to standards [5].
Of course, the scope of application of traffic intensity data is not limited to
street lighting. Knowledge of traffic data can be used to optimise the traffic itself,
by adjusting traffic signal cycles and making strategic decisions. Moreover, it can
be used to identify commuter flows and optimise the public transport system,
which – in turn – may lead to improved living comfort and reduced carbon
dioxide emissions.
In this paper, we propose a graph formalism used to model traffic flows
on urban roads. Its goal is to provide formal means of identifying the possible
manoeuvres of vehicles and binding them to real-life sensor data. It constitutes
the basis for estimation of traffic intensity on roads not covered by sensors, as
well as for the aforementioned accuracy validation.
The practicality of the proposed model is proved using the example of real-
life junction in one of major Polish cities, where the graph is used to identify
potential anomalies in traffic intensity data recorded over a period of 12 months.
Simulation of real street lighting dynamic control has been also performed, to
prove energy saving potential.
The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 presents other approaches to
modelling and estimation of road traffic. Section 3 provides a description of the
proposed model, followed by an example of its practical application in Sect. 5.

2 State of the Art

Traffic flow measurements often use historical data as the source for volume
prediction. Such data is usually insufficient and requires additional effort to
make it complete enough for prediction algorithms. Therefore, creation of an
exact model of traffic flow is essential.
Literature contains a variety of approaches on how to model traffic flow. One
of the attempts is described in [1]. Authors use an origin-destination matrix
to express the number of vehicles passing between zones. Link-to-link dividing
ratios are calculated using traffic flow data completion methodology upon ini-
tially estimated and historical data from San Francisco, CA, USA.
On the other hand, many researchers take advantage of neural networks.
As studies [3,6,8] show, artificial intelligence-based approach yields good results
188 S. Ernst et al.

when it comes to traffic prediction. Due to the nature of the problem and the
usually large volume of time series traffic data, the usage of neural networks
seems to be a reasonable choice.
In [2], the traffic flow model is built focusing on the geometry of intersection
and positioning of places that are equipped with sensor devices. On the contrary,
in our paper we are trying to create a formalised traffic flow graph. Additionally,
in [2] the main effort is put upon the discovery of unknown traffic volumes with
the use of a neural network.
Authors in [3] take into consideration incident and atypical conditions apart
from normal, non-incident conditions due to the fact that traffic flow forecasting
is most needed in case of an accident. This is a different approach than dynamic
street lighting, which focuses on typical traffic flow levels. However, the study
shows that the variety of use cases for traffic flow modeling is very extensive.
In complex street lighting systems, it is crucial to have properly defined
formalisms and methods to manage them. Dynamic street lighting control is
becoming an important aspect of street lighting systems, which needs proper
methodology [11]. Research has proven that introducing dynamic lighting control
can reduce energy consumption up to 34% [10]. Dynamic control is possible on
streets equipped with traffic intensity measurements. Other research shows, that
picking proper time window of measurements can improve energy saving even
by 20% [12].

3 Solution Proposal
3.1 General Description
As mentioned in Sect. 2, there are many models of traffic flow modelling. So why
create a new model? For dynamic control of road lighting we need to strongly
rely on real traffic intensity to make lighting safe for all traffic participants. While
other traffic flow models just describe the travel time and delays, our model can
be used for calculation of the number of vehicle, based on traffic detector data.
In addition, choosing a graph as the formal model makes it easy to integrate
with existing dynamic lighting decision systems, such as those using the Control
Availability Graph (CAG) [13].
Each node in the Traffic Flow Graph represents a place with deterministic,
measurable traffic flow, usually one road lane. Edges represent possible traffic
flows between nodes. Node labels identify streets, e.g. nodes a1 ...a3 belong to
one street. Edge labels are numeric values showing possible division of traffic
originating from a given node.

3.2 Traffic Flow Graph Formal Model

Definition 1. Traffic Flow Graph is a directed graph described by a graph gram-
mar:
Ψ = (V, E, Σ, Υ, δ, λ, I, Θ) (1)
 Graph-Based Vehicle Traffic Modelling for More Efficient Road Lighting 189

where:
– V is a set of nodes, distinguished by indexing function I,
– E ⊂ V × Υ × V is a set of edges,
– Σ is a set of node labels,
– Υ is a set of edge labels,
– δ : V −→ Σ is the node labeling function,
– λ : E −→ Υ is the edge labeling function,
– I is a function from V to δ indexing nodes,
– Θ is an ordering relation in the set of edge labels,
– e = (a, b), where e ⊂ E and a, b ∈ V , understood as a directed edge from a
to b.
and following condition is fulfilled: V, E = ∅.
Nodes represent places with deterministic, measurable traffic flow, edges repre-
sent possible traffic flow between nodes. Node labels identify precisely part of
street. Node attributes are holding current traffic intensity values. Edge labels
carry information about traffic flow division with exact values of that division.
This definition is enhanced general graph definition, allowing synchronization
with other graph structures.

4 Practical Example
We have chosen one intersection located on one of main streets in a major Polish
city as an example. This intersection is part of one of the city’s ring roads, so
it is significant for cross-city traffic. A diagram showing possible traffic flow is
presented in Fig. 1.

4.1 Graph Structure

The graph presented in Fig. 1 shows possible traffic flows in the examined inter-
section. As mentioned in Sect. 3.2, each node represents a lane, where edges are
possible traffic flows between them. The graph clearly shows the possible traffic
flows. The Traffic Flow Graph can support precise calculation of weights repre-
senting the division of flows between nodes. Equations describing possible flows
and their usage are presented in the following sections.

4.2 Traffic Flow Equations

Traffic flow in the considered intersection can be described by the following
equations:

e1 = a1 · w1 + f1
b1 = a1 · (1 − w1 )
b2 = a2 + e3 · w4 + f2 · w2
190 S. Ernst et al.

b3 = a3 · w3 + e3 · (1 − w4 ) + f2 · (1 − w2 )
d1 = c2 + f3
d2 = c3 + f4
d3 = c4
f1 = c1 · w5
f2 = c1 · (1 − w5 )
f3 = e2 · w6 + a3 · (1 − w3 ) · w7
f4 = e2 · (1 − w6 ) + a3 · (1 − w3 ) · (1 − w7 )
c1 = f1 + f2

Where ai , bi , ci , di , ei , fi are values of traffic at certain points and wi are weight

values of how traffic is divided.

Fig. 1. Intersection model with Traffic Flow Graph elements

5 Application Examples
5.1 Validation Using Historical Data
One simple application of the proposed model is verification of the sensor accu-
racy using historical data from traffic detectors located on individual lanes. For
 Graph-Based Vehicle Traffic Modelling for More Efficient Road Lighting 191

every tested time period, we have taken traffic values and verified the relation
between incoming and outgoing traffic. Since traffic light cycles can affect the
results, the validation has been performed using several different time window
sizes. Results have been presented in Sect. 6.1.

5.2 Dynamic Control Simulation

Another example is related to estimation of traffic intensity on streets with no
sensors. For that purpose, a quasi-blind test has been developed.
We have assumed that the street with lanes marked as ei in Fig. 1 (further
referred to as road e) does not have any traffic sensors. In that street, there are
46 lamps, located on both of its sides.
They are equipped with LED luminaires with following parameters:

– power – 99 W
– luminous flux – 13 721.80 lm
– symmetry – none

Each of them has nominal power equal to 99 W, so every hour, when all of
lamps are on without any dimming changes, 4,554 kWh are used. The goal is to
enable the use of dynamic lighting control, which is based on real traffic intensity.
Knowing the intensity, we are able to change the dimming of lamps, so they use
less energy where lighting is still compliant with standards and safe for traffic
participants. In this experiment we will perform simulation of traffic intensity
prediction and compare it to real-life data. With that calculated traffic intensity,
simulation of dynamic lighting control will be performed to assess energy savings.
The main Lighting Class (ME3c) for this road has been chosen in compliance
with CEN/TR 13201-1:2004 requirements [4]. This norm allows to lower the
lighting class on the road when traffic intensity drops. Photometric calculations
have been performed for the main class as well as for lower classes. For every
lighting class we have calculated the dimming values so that all photometric
requirements are fulfilled with minimum energy consumed by the lamp.
For this scenario, the following performance values have been calculated:
the accuracy of prediction compared to real-life data (Sect. 6.2), the accuracy
of lighting class selection according to the standards (Sect. 6.3) and the energy
savings resulting from the performed calculations (Sect. 6.4).

6 Experiments and Results

6.1 Sensor Reliability Validation

To have enough data and to make model reliable, we have taken traffic measure-
ments from the whole year (06.2015–06.2016). For that period, taking half-hour
time periods, the mean error is 15,76%, which shows that model is valuable. For
shorter time periods (i.e. 5 min) error rate is much higher.
192 S. Ernst et al.

6.2 Traffic Intensity Calculation from Traffic Flow Graph

Having calculated the weight values from the Traffic Flow Graph equations
(described in Sect. 4.2), we are able to calculate traffic values on road e, assum-
ing that there are no traffic detectors. Equations to calculate traffic intensity on
road e are as follows:

e1 = a1 · w1 + c1 · w5
e2 = (d1 − c2 − a3 · (1 − w3 ) · w7 )/w6
e3 = (b2 − a2 − c1 · (1 − w5 ) · w2 )/w4

For each timestamp, we have calculated the expected values of ei and compared
them to real, measured values. The mean error is equal to 14.14%.

6.3 Calculation of Lighting Class Configuration

With calculated predicted traffic on road e, we were able to determine, which

lighting class should be applied for each half-hour window. For real traffic, we
were able to choose the lighting class with 100% confidence. Then, we calculated
the lighting class based on predicted traffic intensity. Precision of such prediction
of lighting class is 93% which is a very good result. The accuracy of prediction
was obtained by comparing lighting classes determined by an expert with lighting
classes which were calculated using approximated traffic flow data from presented
model.

6.4 Energy Savings Gained by Our Solutions

Having predicted the lighting class configuration for each time window, we were
able to calculate how much energy can be saved by implementing our solution on
the street. Without any dynamic control, during the entire year, street lighting
on street e uses 16,697 MWh. Introducing dynamic control using real-life data
saves energy usage by 15,1%. Our calculated values gave possibility to gain
energy savings of 13,8%, which is only 1,3% less than using real-life data. The
energy usage without and with control is presented in Fig. 2.
 Graph-Based Vehicle Traffic Modelling for More Efficient Road Lighting 193

Fig. 2. Energy usage.

7 Conclusions
The paper introduces a formal, graph-based model for vehicle flows – defined
as the number of vehicles passing in a given time – in urban road systems. Its
goal is to provide a clear representation of points where traffic intensity can be
measured and means to define the dependencies between them in the form of
equations. Its usefulness manifests itself especially in applications based on the
utilisation of the design road capacity (as opposed to those based on travel time).
One of such applications is the area of dynamic road lighting control. The
proposed model allows for easy representation of the existing sensor infrastruc-
ture and for calculation of probable (or almost certain) traffic flow values to
broaden area to which dynamic street lighting control can be applied, which
leads to higher energy savings. Verification of the model in a real-life scenario
has proven energy savings by 13,8%.
An important issue in this context is the scalability of the solution. The
presented examples are limited to a small part of the city road network for clarity
of presentation. However, in practical situations, the modelled area will often be
an entire city or one of its districts. Using a graph formalism (see Sect. 3.2)
allows us to develop the model and the transformations on a conceptual level,
which does not determine the implementation. As the model itself is theoretically
capable of handling an arbitrarily complex road structure, its implementation
may utilise horizontally-scalable, distributed systems, such as graph databases.
194 S. Ernst et al.

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