Software Solution for Monitoring Street Traffic and Generating Optimum Routes using Graph Theory Algorithms

Abstract

Nowadays, big cities are facing traffic jams, generated by the great number of automobiles in regard to the limited infrastructure capacity. Drivers are being presented with these problems: increased time spent between areas of interest, a higher risk of having an accident and of course stress suffering. In order to solve the urban traffic-jam problem a number of solutions have been developed. One of these is TomTom , which offers, free of charge, the possibility to generate navigation indications for a route. Unfortunately, the traffic monitoring service is limited to a few countries, but some countries are not on their coverage area. At this time there isn’t a complete method to calculate the optimum route from a destination to another, taking into account street traffic. The only way to get relevant information is represented by the drivers personal expetraffic jams a series of solutiontraffic jams a series of solutionrience and the news on TV/radio. Thus, the choice for generating an optimum route is up to the driver/client and, as a consequence, this method is not a scientific one, being certified only empirically.
In this context, the paper presents a software solution, which determines the optimum route, taking street traffic into regard, thus contributing to a substantial reduction of time spent in traffic by drivers. The information needed for the application regarding the state of the street traffic can be supplied by the agents that check all available information sources(news bulletins, radio, police announcements) and the mobile agents that patrol the streets. The aim of this paper is to present a solution for determining the optimum route choice for cars. The solution is composed of two applications: First is MapMaker, which designs a street map. Second is BestRoute which can add traffic coefficients to streets and calculate the optimum route. In order to choose the best route two criteria are used: the minimum distance and the street traffic coefficients. The data regarding the streets map and the traffic situation is taken from a MySQL database; the optimum route from destination A to the destination B is calculated using a modified Dijkstra algorithm.