Deep learning for traffic prediction and trend deviation identification : a case study in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper introduces a robust methodology for predicting traffic volume and speed on major strategic routes in Hong Kong by leveraging data from data.gov.hk and utilizing deep learning models. The approach offers predictions from 6 min to 1 h, considering detector reliability. By extracting hidden deep features from historical detector data to establish detector profiles and grouping detectors into clusters based on profile similarities, the method employs a CNN-LSTM prediction model for each cluster. The study demonstrates the model’s resilience to detector failures, with tests conducted across failure rates from 1% to 20%, highlighting its ability to maintain accurate predictions despite random failures. In scenarios without failed detectors, the method achieves favorable performance metrics: MAE, RMSE, and MAPE for traffic volume prediction over the next 6 min stand at 5.17 vehicles/6 min, 7.64 vehicles/6 min, and 14.07%, respectively, while for traffic speed prediction, the values are 3.70 km/h, 6.32 km/h, and 6.33%. Considering a failure rate of approximately 6% in the Hong Kong dataset, in simulated scenarios with 6% failures, the model maintains its predictive accuracy, with average MAE, RMSE, and MAPE for traffic volume prediction at 5.24 vehicles/6 min, 7.81 vehicles/6 min, and 14.21%, and for traffic speed prediction at 3.87 km/h, 6.55 km/h, and 6.68%. However, the limitation of the proposed method is its potential to underperform when predicting rare or unseen scenarios, indicating the need for future research to incorporate additional data sources and methods to enhance predictive performance.