Patent ID: 8180557

Claim:
A traffic state predicting apparatus comprising: a processor configured to acquire traffic information on a predicted travel time for each of one or more links constituting a road on a map, sections in the link each having a determined level of congestion, a congestion reference position being a reference position for the section for which the level of congestion is determined, and a total section length of the sections for each of which the level of congestion is determined to be congested; and a processor configured to create parameters on each of the links based on which the sections in each of the links are obtained for which the level of congestion is determined, wherein the parameters include a smooth traffic speed indicating a threshold value of a traffic speed for which a level of congestion is determined to be smooth, a congested traffic speed indicating a threshold value of a traffic speed for which the level of congestion is determined to be congested, and congestion reference positions each of which is a reference position for a congested section, wherein the processor configured to create comprises: travel speed calculating means that obtains travel speeds for each level of congestion for each of the links; means for arranging the travel speeds for each level of congestion in ascending order or descending order and, for each level of congestion, acquiring travel speeds in predetermined percentiles of all the travel speeds; congestion degree classifying section calculating means that obtains sections into which each of the links is divided based on the predicted travel time and the parameters, each of the sections in each of the links having a determined level of congestion; and means for obtaining an evaluation value based on matching between the obtained sections and sections according to their level of congestion contained in the traffic information, wherein the travel speed for each level of congestion that gives the highest evaluated value is included in the parameters.