A Study of TomTom's Probe Vehicle Data with Three-phase Traffic Theory

This article analyzes TomTom's GPS and GSM (Vodafone data) probe vehicle data used in TomTom's HD-traffic for vehicle navigation. It is found that the data allows for reconstruction of traffic patterns with a much greater quality of spatiotemporal resolution than has been possible before. Congested traffic in measured traffic patterns is shown to consist of 2 traffic phases of Kerner's 3-phase theory, synchronized flow, and moving jams. It is posited that TomTom's probe vehicle data opens qualitative new perspectives for creation of many new ITS applications such as traffic jam warning, input data for traffic control, hybrid vehicle strategies, and fuel consumption reduction. TomTom's probe vehicle data processed using the methodology of the 3-phase theory provides a basis for the reconstruction of a fine spatiotemporal structure of traffic congestion with a high quality resolution of traffic phases. TomTom's probe vehicle data can be efficiently used as an empirical basis for traffic research and engineering.