The potential of cell phones to operate as traffic data collection devices has been considered by the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) community for several years. With the Mobile Millennium project, researchers have constructed an unprecedented traffic monitoring system capable of fusing GPS data from cell phones with data from existing traffic sensors. It will be accessible to the public via free software that is compatible with Nokia and non-Nokia smartphones.

Government agencies currently deploy networks of infrastructure-based traffic sensors that are expensive to install and maintain. Leveraging the existing infrastructure of commercial cellular networks could drastically cut the ongoing costs of traffic monitoring and expand coverage to thousands of miles of highways and urban arterials for which sensors are not currently a viable option.

On February 8, 2008, Nokia and UC Berkeley demonstrated the reconstruction of traffic on highways using cell phones by running an experiment, nicknamed Mobile Century for its 100 cars traveling in 10-mile loops on I-880 for 8 hours, which amounted to 2-5% of traffic. During the experiment, GPS-equipped Nokia N95 phones sent traffic information in a privacy-protecting system capable of broadcasting traffic information in real time on the internet. The successful experiment, funded by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), led to the development of a pilot system, called Mobile Millennium, to further test this technology by making it available to the public.

What is Mobile Millennium?

The project is a partnership between Nokia, NAVTEQ, and UC Berkeley, based at the California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT) and supported by the U.S. and California Departments of Transportation through the SafeTrip-21 initiative.

Researchers have constructed an unprecedented traffic monitoring system capable of fusing GPS data from cell phones with data from existing traffic sensors. The research and development phase of this project was dubbed Mobile Millennium for the potential thousands of Early Adopters who will participate in the pilot deployment, which launched November 10, 2008 and runs, at minimum, through June 2009. Mobile Millennium will cover not only highways, but also the arterial network, where there is currently almost no sensing infrastructure. The software will work on Nokia and non-Nokia phones, and the public may download it free of charge.

It gathers data in a privacy-preserving environment, relying on Virtual Trip Lines technology, a data-sampling paradigm that anonymizes the GPS-based position information and aggregates it into a single data stream. The aggregated data is then encrypted and sent to a computer system, which blends it with other sources of traffic data and broadcasts this real-time, data-rich information back to the phones and to the internet through a user-friendly interface.

Launching the System

The launch of Mobile Millennium, including the release of free software for the public, was announced at a special preview event at UC Berkeley on November 10. Leaders from transportation, government, and academia assembled to present information about the technology and how it works. An audience of invited Early Adopters, the media, and live webcast viewers took part. Following the brief presentation, guests were invited to download the software and drive off as the first mobile probes in the system.

The system is currently available to Bay Area and Sacramento area residents with compatible smartphones. The first phase of the system launch includes traffic data for highways. Information on arterial routes may be introduced as more and more users come online and sufficient probe data becomes available. Researchers expect to add more users all the way through the pilot deployment period, scheduled to end in June 2009.

The system’s breakthrough arterial coverage capabilities were demonstrated live in New York City on November 18, 2008, at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems, where the project won the “Best of ITSA” award.

Public Information and Support

-Main website:
http://traffic.berkeley.edu

-Media coverage: http://traffic.berkeley.edu/newsreleases.html

-Newsletter for Early Adopters: http://traffic.berkeley.edu/pilotfaq.html

The potential of cell phones to operate as traffic data collection devices has been considered by the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) community for several years. With the Mobile Millennium project, researchers have constructed an unprecedented traffic monitoring system capable of fusing GPS data from cell phones with data from existing traffic sensors. It will be accessible to the public via free software that is compatible with Nokia and non-Nokia smartphones.

Government agencies currently deploy networks of infrastructure-based traffic sensors that are expensive to install and maintain. Leveraging the existing infrastructure of commercial cellular networks could drastically cut the ongoing costs of traffic monitoring and expand coverage to thousands of miles of highways and urban arterials for which sensors are not currently a viable option.

On February 8, 2008, Nokia and UC Berkeley demonstrated the reconstruction of traffic on highways using cell phones by running an experiment, nicknamed Mobile Century for its 100 cars traveling in 10-mile loops on I-880 for 8 hours, which amounted to 2-5% of traffic. During the experiment, GPS-equipped Nokia N95 phones sent traffic information in a privacy-protecting system capable of broadcasting traffic information in real time on the internet. The successful experiment, funded...