Guwahati: IIT-Guwahati researchers have found that vehicle spacing changes as traffic moves from free-flow to congested conditions.A study found that vehicles maintain larger gaps on relatively empty roads, move closer together as traffic becomes moderately heavy, and spread out again as congestion intensifies.Led by Prof. Akhilesh K Maurya of IIT-Guwahati’s civil engineering department, the research tracked more than 36,000 vehicles and nearly nine million vehicle positions using drone footage from a Delhi highway.The team developed mathematical and machine-learning models to analyse and predict traffic behaviour on India’s heterogeneous roads. The findings were published in the International Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems Research in a paper co-authored by Maurya and research scholars Shekhar Singh and Surya H Ravikumar.The study analysed daytime drone footage from an eight-lane divided highway with wide paved shoulders on Delhi’s outskirts. Researchers examined the relationship between traffic density, vehicle spacing and speed, and found that it was not necessarily linear.Unlike conventional models based on orderly traffic and uniform vehicles, the models account for Indian road conditions, where two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers share space with pedestrians.“Traffic conditions in India are different from those in many countries where existing traffic models have been developed. We need traffic data that represents the diversity and characteristics of Indian roads,” Prof Maurya said.The researchers said drone-based trajectory data captured interactions among different vehicle types and variability often missed by conventional models. They said the findings could support traffic simulation, road design, congestion management, capacity assessment and intelligent traffic systems.
