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Vehicle speed measurement technique using various speed detection

instrumentation

Conference Paper · April 2013

DOI: 10.1109/BEIAC.2013.6560214

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Muhammad Akram Adnan Nor IZZAH Zainuddin

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 2013 IEEE Business Engineering and Industrial Applications Colloquium (BEIAC)

Vehicle Speed Measurement Technique Using

Various Speed Detection Instrumentation
Muhammad Akram Adnan Nor Izzah Zainuddin
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Civil Engineering Master Student, Faculty of Civil Engineering
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
akram@salam.uitm.edu.my izzahzdin@gmail.com

Norliana Sulaiman Tuan Badrul Hisyam Tuan Besar

Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Civil Engineering PhD Student, Faculty of Civil Engineering
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
ns49@yahoo.com badrol2k4@yahoo.com

Abstract— Advanced technology offers us various alternatives for speed limits, timing traffic signals, placing traffic signs, and
collecting traffic data. However, different devices often result in determining the effectiveness of countermeasures [2]. There
different accuracy to the true speed of the drivers. Lack of are several commercial portable speed measurement devices
knowledge of accuracy between different devices is often cited as (traffic speed detectors) available for measuring the speeds.
a common problem for both transportation researcher and Some of them are intrusive devices, some are non-intrusive and
practitioner. This paper discusses the most accurate traffic data some are off-roadway. Table I shows examples of each
measurement device when compared to the true driving speed of technology.
the driver using the V-BOX GPS validated with the dash box of
the test vehicle. The paper illustrates and discusses the significant
value R2 of the traffic data using scatter plot, root mean squared TABLE I. VEHICLE DETECTOR TECHNOLOGY
error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE) and mean absolute
Intrusive devices Non-Intrusive Off-
percentage error (MAPE). The paper covers two classes of
devices Roadway
advanced traffic data collection devices which are intrusive Inductive Loops Sonic and Ultrasonic Probe Vehicle
(automated traffic classifier) and off road portable speed Doppler
measurement devices (laser gun, radar gun and manual count). Pneumatic tubes Laser Gun
Results showed that automated traffic classifier have the smaller Passive Infrared -
discrepancies or deviations followed by laser gun, manual count Piezoelectric tubes Active Infrared Radar Gun
and radar gun when comparing to the global positioning system
(GPS). It is extremely important to notify which devices have the Bending Plates Microwave Detector
most accurate data collection as any study can only be as
Magnetic Detector Video
accurate as the data on which it is based.

Keywords- Speed measurements; traffic data collection
I. INTRODUCTION
Even with perfect instruments and technique, uncertainty is
inherent in the nature of things. Similarly, no matter how
precisely the speeds are measured at a fixed location, it is very
likely that the true speed of a driver is not recorded as different
devices may respond differently causing discrepancies in the
data. Accurate traffic data are essential for supporting a
multitude of transportation related decisions which affect
transportation system operations, management, and planning
[1]. For this reason it is extremely important that the traffic
data collected from the devices is accurate. The measurement
of vehicular speeds is a common and important task performed
by practitioners of many traffic-related disciplines, including
engineers, managers, researchers, and law enforcements
individuals. Transportation agencies often use results of speed
studies as the basis for important decisions, such as setting
All of these technologies have certain advantages and
disadvantages. As these devices used for speed measurement
are either placed on the roadbed or on the road sides on trailers,
posts or even handheld, therefore, they are likely to be
inaccurate. This affect can lead to discrepancies in the speed
data and the speeds collected might not be the speeds that
would have been in the actual situation. As the speed
measurement devices may respond differently, there can be
some discrepancy in these data. The research will demonstrate
the accuracy of speeds due to each portable speed measurement
devices which include automated traffic classifiers, laser gun,
radar gun and manual count comparing with the off-road probe
vehicle using the global positioning system (GPS).

The authors would like to express their gratitude for receiving the support
from Research Management Institute (RMI), Universiti Teknologi MARA
(UiTM) and funding sponsored by Ministry of Higher Education, MOHE
under File Code No : 600-RMI/FRGS 5/3 (36/2012).

978-1-4673-5968-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 641

 II. TESTED SPEED MEASURING DEVICES
Four different types of technologies of traffic detectors
were tested in this study to compare the speed reading with the
V-BOX GPS. The criteria used to select detectors were
availability, demonstrated capability to detect vehicle
travelling speed, compatibility with controllers in place at the
field test locations and devices representative of current
technology at the time of this research.
A. Automated Traffic Classifiers (ATC)
The main components of RealCountTM are road sensors,
such as preformed loop and road tubes. For this study,
preformed loop is used. Preformed loop is connected to the
RealCountTM which is located by the roadside which is
powered by a 12 volt battery. Preformed Loop is connected to
1-channel loop detector which is connected to the
microprocessor. Preformed loop act as an instrument to detect
the presence of the vehicle and separation or headways of the
vehicle from each consecutive movement in platoons. The
brief procedure for installing the preformed loop are;
• Two tubes are installed at selected site as shown in
Fig.1.
Figure 1. Installation process of road tubes
• The two road tubes are connected to the two tube
sensors inside the RealCountTM. These two tube
sensors are connected to the microprocessor.
• Need to ensure that the connection of the sensors are
tight before collection of data can be started. Fig. 2
shows the RealCountTM that is ready for data
collection.
Figure 2. Road tubes installed on road
• Combinations of signals from tube sensor and loop
detector are processed by microprocessor that results in a
variety of traffic data. All the data will be displayed and
recorded by microproceesor.
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• Data can be retrieved by uploading using personal
computer that communicates via serial communication
cable (USB).
B. Radar and Laser Gun
Manual counting equipment such as radar and laser gun
counting still is widely used for temporary data collection.
However, it is limited due to safety, cost, and inclement
weather. A radar gun and laser guns both measure speed. The
effective measuring distance for a radar gun ranges from 60
meters up to 3000 meters [3]. A radar gun requires the line-of-
sight to accurately measure speed and is easily operated by one
person. However, if traffic is heavy or if the sampling is too
complex, two observers may be needed. The laser gun or lidar
gun is a technology of light detection and ranging which emits
a series of infrared laser light pulses to measure both the range
and velocity of the target. The technology can be programmed
to ignore inclement weather and it can shoot through glass. The
laser gun has a narrow field of view to report more selective
targets, while the radar gun has a wide field of view
programmed to report the strongest or fastest vehicle. Fig. 3
shows both radar and laser gun.
Figure 3. Radar gun and laser gun
C. Manual Count
Manual count or also known as running speed was done in
this study. Running speed is determined by dividing the total
distance by the total running time of a vehicle. The vehicle
passing a straight section of the selected roadway is calculated
by recording the time required to cross a specified distance
called the ‘trap length’. For this purpose a straight section of
the road is selected for marking the trap length. The section is
also known as the test section. In collecting the data, an
observer starts and stops the stopwatch as the test vehicle
enters and departs the starting and ending points of the marked
test section. The test section is marked as shown in Fig. 4.
Marking on Street Marking on Street
Trap Length (test section)
Figure 4. Running speed: trap length
D. Probe Vehicle
Probe vehicle technologies meet particular intelligent
transportation systems (ITS) purposes, such as real-time
operation monitoring, and incident detection and route
guidance. They also collect real-time traffic data. Although
probe vehicle systems require high implementation cost and
fixed infrastructure, they offer advantages including low cost
per unit of data, continuous data collection, automated data
collection, and no disruption to traffic [4]. Probe vehicles are
equipped with GPS receivers to pick up signals from earth-
orbiting satellites. GPS mainly contains three components
which are: space, control, and user shown in Fig. 5. In this
study VBOX II SX, one of the many probe vehicle devices is
use to collect the speed data. The VBOX device was installed
in the test vehicle to compare with the other selected speed
measurement devices.
Figure 5. Simulation of GPS data collection
III. METHOD
To measure the traffic speed due to various speed
measurement devices, speeds were collected using four
different speed measurement devices. Data were collected at
one straight length of a road where all instrument was placed
and located for the ease of enumerators to collect the speed
data of the test vehicle. One test vehicle installed with the
VBOX GPS equipment that is use as the baseline. The test
vehicle was subjected to 14 runs with increasing speed from 5-
70 km/hr. Fig. 6 shows the selected site of the study area and
location of the speed measurement devices.
Automated traffic classifiers
Radar Gun
Laser Gun
Manual Count
Figure 6. Study area and location of the speed measurement devices
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IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
All the speed data using different speed measurement
devices was compared to the V-BOX GPS verified by dash
board meter on the test vehicle. A linear trendline is drawn in
the graph where the points would lie close to the line and if the
speed data from other devices matched the actual values from
V-BOX GPS speed data exactly, the data is accurate [5]. If the
points were far from the line it would mean that there is a
discrepancy in the data. From Fig. 7 VBOX GPS device can be
use as the baseline due to the point that lie on the linear
trendline and the value of R2 equal to 1 where the VBOX GPS
matched exactly the speed meter on the dash box of the test
vehicle.
Figure 7. Verified data for Dash Box (actual speed of test vehicle) versus
VBOX GPS
Fig. 8 shows scatter plot between automated traffic
classifiers (ATC) and VBOX GPS device with R2 value of
0.986. Fig. 9 shows scatter plot between laser gun and VBOX
GPS device with R2 value of 0.985. The third scatter plot
shown in Fig. 10 between manual count and VBOX GPS
device with R2 value of 0.885. Lastly Fig. 11 scatter plot
between radar gun and VBOX GPS device with R2 value of
0.515. When different speed measurement devices compared to
the V-BOX GPS, the highest R2 value was automated traffic
classifiers (ATC) followed by laser gun, manual count and
lastly radar gun. From the result, exception of automatic traffic
classifiers and laser gun, both radar gun and manual count
became slightly less accurate and less precise at higher speeds.
Figure 8. Scatter plot for automated traffic classifiers (ATC) versus VBOX
GPS
 There are several measures used to evaluate the accuracy of
the results such as RMSE in (1), MAE in (2) and MAPE in (3).
Errors are defined as the differences between the speeds
measured by the devices and the V-BOX GPS

(1)

(2)

(3)

Figure 9. Scatter plot for laser gun versus VBOX GPS

where:

RMSE = root mean squared error

MAE = mean absolute error
MAPE = mean absolute percentage error
yi = the speed data from other speed
measurement devices in this study for the ith
dataset
y = the V-BOX GPS speed data for the ith
dataset
Figure 10. Scatter plot for manual count versus VBOX GPS
N = the number of data sets considered

Table II shows the summary of the RMSE, MAE and

MAPE values. The root mean squared error and mean absolute
percentage error was lowest when automated traffic classifiers
was compared to VBOX GPS followed by laser gun, manual
count and radar gun. The overall mean absolute error was
between 0.43 km/h to 3.36 km/h. All devices showed small
discrepancy values between the devices. Nevertheless, the
more precise is the automated traffic classifiers or loop
detector.

TABLE II. SUMMARY OF THE RMSE, MAE AND MAPE VALUES

Figure 11. Scatter plot between radar gun and VBOX GPS

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 V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Based on the research it was observed that the automated The authors would like to thank Authorities from Faculty of
traffic classifiers have a higher accuracy when compared to Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) for
the VBOX GPS. Table III shows the conclusion that can be their constant support and encouragement. Appreciation goes
made from the study through advantages and disadvantages of to the Research Management Institute (RMI, UiTM) and
each device. Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) for financial
supports file no: 600-RMI/FRGS 5/3 (36/2012). Thank you is
also extended to all individuals and organization that have
TABLE III. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF EACH made this study possible.
DEVICE
REFERENCES
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[4] Martin P. T, Y. Feng, and X. Wang, "Detector
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captured within a ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc,
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average operating
range is about 800 feet
Manual Count • Accurate on a • Errors from the human
low speed due when high speed
to human • Accuracy of data
perception depend on the
reaction time individual
Radar Gun • Portable and • Data may be biased
easy to use due to the conspicuity
of the data collector
• Disturbance from other
vehicle from other lane
• Radar may read one of
several vehicle /
distinguish one target
from another

Technology advancements have taken a huge change in

recent years in the field of non-intrusive speed measurement
devices to intrusive speed measurement devices, making them
more reliable, accurate, easy to use and safe. Due to these
reasons and several other reasons such devices are increasingly
becoming more popular amongst private firms and departments
of transportation. A study comparing exclusively non-intrusive
speed measurement devices with latest advance intrusive speed
measurement devices should be done to evaluate the most
accurate data so that research work can be done precisely.

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