Patent ID: 7912628

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for facilitating vehicle travel on roads by generating and providing information related to traffic congestion on the roads, the method comprising: receiving information describing a network of roads in a geographic area; for each of the roads in the network, identifying multiple segments of the road for which road traffic information will be distinctly tracked and provided, each road segment having one or more associated road traffic sensors that provide data regarding vehicles traveling by the road traffic sensors; for each of one or more of the road segments, and for each of multiple distinct periods of time, generating information related to vehicle travel on the road segment during the period of time, by, obtaining multiple data samples of multiple types that each reflect one or more travel characteristics of one or more vehicles traveling on the road segment during the period of time, the obtained multiple data samples including multiple data samples of a first type that are each a road traffic sensor reading generated by one of the one or more road traffic sensors associated with the road segment, the obtained multiple data samples further including multiple data samples of a second type that are each a mobile data source data sample reported by one of multiple vehicles on the road segment; automatically assessing the obtained data samples to identify a group of multiple data samples of multiple types that represent actual vehicle travel on the road segment during the period of time, the assessing including excluding one or more data samples that are identified as being unrepresentative of actual vehicle travel on the road segment based at least in part on comparison of the travel characteristics reflected by the excluded data samples to the travel characteristics reflected by the other data samples; automatically analyzing the travel characteristics reflected by the identified group of multiple data samples in order to generate one or more estimated measurements of actual traffic congestion on the road segment during the period of time, the estimated measurements being generated in a weighted manner such that each data sample of the identified group is weighted based at least in part on a type of the data sample and on recency of the data sample; automatically generating one or more predicted measurements of future traffic congestion on the road segment for one or more future periods of times based in part on the estimated measurements of actual traffic congestion on the road segment during the period of time and based in part on, other current conditions in the geographic area that affect future traffic on the road segment; and providing the generated estimated actual traffic congestion measurements and the predicted future traffic congestion measurements for the road segment for use in facilitating travel on one or more of the roads, so that users can navigate vehicles over the network of roads based on estimated current and predicted future traffic congestion of the roads.