Connected vehicles rely on short-range messaging using Basic Safety Message (BSM) data that includes information about vehicle size, speed, position, and heading (direction). In the future, all vehicles will be expected to send and receive this information to enhance safety and mobility. Exchange of BSM data among vehicles and traffic management systems will have the potential to generate traffic information that could be used to support current or develop new traffic measures such as travel time, end of queue information for work zones, road weather delay impact, and enhanced traffic signal control. This will be particularly valuable for arterial roadways and work zones in areas without instrumentation or where transportation systems management instrumentation is disrupted by construction. The aim of this research was to develop and validate algorithms that will use BSM data to estimate selected traffic measures that could be used for performance monitoring, traffic control, and traveler information.

The final report NCHRP Research Report 997 Algorithms to Convert Basic Safety Messages into Traffic Measures and a PowerPoint presentation are available for immediate use. Source code and additional software documentation may be found via Dropbox and on GitHub.