Predicting Traffic Congestion at Urban Intersections Using Data-Driven Modeling

Abstract: Traffic congestion at intersections is a significant issue in urban areas, leading to increased commute times, safety hazards, and operational inefficiencies. This study aims to develop a predictive model for congestion at intersections in major U.S. cities, utilizing a dataset of trip-logging metrics from commercial vehicles across 4,800 intersections. The dataset encompasses 27 features, including intersection coordinates, street names, time of day, and traffic metrics (Kashyap et al., 2019). Additional features, such as rainfall/snowfall percentage, distance from downtown and outskirts, and road types, were incorporated to enhance the model's predictive power. The methodology involves data exploration, feature transformation, and handling missing values through low-rank models and label encoding. The proposed model has the potential to assist city planners and governments in anticipating traffic hot spots, optimizing operations, and identifying infrastructure challenges.