A Machine Learning Scheme for Speed Prediction in Intelligent Transportation Systems Using a Bi-LSTM Based Model

Congestion has become a big issue in major cities throughout the world. Numerous transportation activities have been affected, and travel times have increased as a result of many travellers spending lengthy hours on the road. To overcome these challenges, the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), which provides efficient traffic service and management, has sparked widespread attention. Collection and analysis of traffic data have been made possible by the algorithms implemented by the ITS. Huge volumes of data are produced by the vast wide range of sensors used in the Internet of Things (IoT), enabling the collection of a variety of traffic information. Development of short-term traffic speed prediction has been made possible using deep learning models such as Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) and Bidirectional LSTM. Numerous variables, including the weather, the state of the roads, and traffic congestion, can have long-term dependencies and influence traffic speed. The bidirectional architecture of Bi-LSTMs enables them to handle long-term dependencies in sequences and efficiently capture both past and future context in a sequence, which is crucial for producing accurate forecasts of traffic speed. In this paper, the upstream and downstream flow of traffic speed on various pathways has been investigated using a traffic path planning algorithm based on Bi-LSTM models. The algorithm considers the factors affecting the flow of traffic at different seasons and time of the day and tries to predict the average speed associated to that path several timeslots ahead. The experimental results demonstrated that the Bi-LSTM model has the benefit of predicting speed for various timeslots while retaining a high level of accuracy.