Delay Variability Analysis at Intersections Using Public Transit GPS Data

India is competing with the fastest-growing countries in the world in terms of urbanization and development. Rapid urbanization and motorization have led to congestion in urban roads in India. Delay forms a significant part of congestion. It is necessary to analyze variability in delay for mitigation of traffic congestion. In recent years, GPS data has emerged as a novel data source for traffic state monitoring and analysis due to its better accuracy, coverage, and accessibility. However, little work has been done for control delay estimation especially in Indian traffic condition. In this paper, an attempt has been made to estimate control delay at selected intersections in Mysore city using GPS data from transit buses. A vehicle trajectory-based formulation is adopted for the estimation of delay. The results are fitted to statistical distributions to analyze variability in delay. Kolmogorov- Smirnov (K-S) test for goodness of fit is used to estimate best fitting distribution. Generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution is found to best-fit delay in terms of fitting performance, robustness, and accuracy. The performance analysis indicates greater variability in delay during morning and evening peak hours. Successful estimation of delay variability allows for the analysis of traffic state at various intersections, thus paving the way for effective congestion mitigation.