Estimation of stochastic traffic capacity using extreme value theory and censoring: a case study in Salem, New Hampshire

In this work, we introduce a method of estimating stochastic freeway capacity using elements of both extreme value theory and survival analysis. First, we define capacity data, or estimates of the capacity of the roadway, as the daily maximum flow values. Then, under a survival analysis premise, we introduce censoring into our definition. That is, on days when flows are sufficiently high and congestion occurs, corresponding flow maxima are considered true estimates of capacity; otherwise, for those days that do not observe high flows or congestion, flow maxima are deemed censored observations and capacities must be higher than the observations. By extreme value theory, the collection of flow maxima (block maxima) can be appropriately approximated with a generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution. Because of small sample sizes and the presence of censoring, a Bayesian framework is pursued for model fitting and parameter estimation. To lend credence to our proposed methodology, the procedure is applied to real-world traffic stream data collected by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) at a busy location on Interstate I-93 near Salem, New Hampshire. Data were collected over a period of 11 months and raw data were aggregated into 15-minute intervals. To assess our procedure, and to provide proof of concept, several validation procedures are presented. First, using distinct training and validation subsets of our data, the procedure yields accurate predictions of highway capacity. Next, our procedure is applied to a training set to yield random capacities which are then used to predict breakdown in the validation set. The frequency of these predicted breakdowns is found to be statistically similar to observed breakdowns observed in our validation set. Lastly, after comparing our methodology to other methods of stochastic capacity estimation, we find our procedure to be highly successful