Answers.Body: <p><strong>Adjustments</strong></p>
  
  <p>There are a few considerations that may help with problem analysis:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Traffic data alone will produce limited predictive results.  For instance, the onset of precipitation is critical input for any production-ready predictive model.</li>
  <li>Traffic congestion is highly chaotic in that events cascade, thus what is colloquially called the butterfly effect, is a dominant challenge.  What you can realistically achieve are what chaoticians call attractors.  They are morphological features in phase spaces and auto-correlations that are predictable under specific conditions.</li>
  <li>Modelling traffic requires further segmentation beyond stop locations to include turn options and merge points, both of which are critical factors in free flow and congestion.</li>
  <li>Feedback from the field will DRASTICALLY improve prediction.  Expecting the system to predict start to finish scenarios longer than a few minutes of potential congestion dynamics is unrealistic.  Inputs will need to be continuous and the closer to real time the better.</li>
  <li>The physical relationships between position, velocity, and acceleration must be built into the parameterized model in which parameters are continuously updated.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>We can assume that the system design predicts congestion for some purpose, which was not stated in the question.  It is reasonable to assume, because of the economics of transportation, that the objective is to reduce the area under the probability distribution curve for undesirable events resulting from congestion.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Lost time</li>
  <li>Accident occurrence</li>
  <li>Fatalities</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>The mechanism of control through which such objectives could be achieved can be any of these.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Notifying drivers of traffic conditions via cell towers or WiFi</li>
  <li>Notifying drivers via dynamic sign display</li>
  <li>Adjusting remotely configurable traffic signaling devices</li>
  <li>Controlling gates</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>These controls can be to human drivers or pilots or to automated driving or piloting systems.  The context of the system is key to designing it properly, since the use cases are entirely driven by this context.</p>
  
  <p><strong>The Questions</strong></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Is this approach correct, [and] how can I improve it? &mdash; suggestions above</li>
  <li>I am not sure if the number of inputs can be increased for better results. &mdash; absolutely yes</li>
  <li>Which activation method will be best to utilize to get a range of conditions/event types rather than binary 1 or 0? &mdash; A ReLU or one of its derivatives may produce the best results for off line training, however it may be advisable to look into real time approaches such as Q-learning.  In either case, it is advisable to finish requirements definition, decide upon approach, and produce a general architectural diagram of the system before attending to such minutia as activation functions.</li>
  <li>[Given the likely data set size of 200GB] can I use my professional grad laptop to process this data or if I should consider going to Big Data Processing power? &mdash; Using VLSI hardware acceleration from vendors such as Intel or NVidia is advisable.  Over the course of time, the initial expense and learning curve may be absorbed by not having to pay for additional bandwidth for PasS or SaaS services.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Regarding computing resources, it is inadvisable to begin with some of the most congested places.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Cities Definitely Too Congested</strong></p>
  
  <p>It is likely that these cities would require a super-computing platform of significant size and a multinational corporation sized budget.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Beijing</li>
  <li>Dubai</li>
  <li>Tokyo</li>
  <li>Los Angeles</li>
  <li>Chicago</li>
  <li>London</li>
  <li>Hong Kong</li>
  <li>Shanghai</li>
  <li>Paris</li>
  <li>Amsterdam</li>
  <li>Dallas</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Commuter locations such as Melbourne, Australia; Palm Beach, Florida; or New Haven, Connecticut are examples of good choices to start.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-10-12T12:41:41.713Z
Answers.Text: Dear Douglas, thanks for your comprehensive reply and highlighting aspects which I was overlooking and oversimplifying .I thought I will try to remove the anomalies which are introduced by human or non-human induced factors.
  I am also thinking to add POIs data in addition to the weather or events data. How will you suggest preparing the input data? Initially I was thinking a time reference based on week(52), day(7), half an hour (96), route, speed, acceleration, velocity and actual travel time. Now I can add an event (type) or non event with it. How can we include POIs in this reference?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Simra
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-10-12T00:04:35.640Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2018-10-12T00:16:21.363Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2018-10-12T00:16:21.363Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Douglas Daseeco
Body: <p>I am a newbie in deep learning and am looking for advice on predicting traffic congestion events. I have a table for vehicle travel times data, another table with the road length segmented based on stop locations. I am thinking to derive the time-wise route-specific speed details based on stop locations. After initial data cleansing and messaging, my input parameters are the time and stop location with actual speed details. I train my model with the training dataset and validate it as per the deep learning recommended approach. </p>
  
  <p>So my questions are:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Is this approach correct or how can I improve it? I am not sure if
  the number of inputs can be increased for better results.   </li>
  <li>Which activation method will be best to utilize to get a range of conditions/event types rather than binary 1 or 0?     </li>
  <li>This will require dealing with a bigger dataset of at least over a few GBs. This will evolve into around 200GBs in the final product. Can I use my professional grad laptop to process this data or if I should consider going to Big Data Processing power?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Please advise. Thanks in advance for your help.</p>
  
Tags: <deep-learning>
Title: Deep learning model training and processing requirement for Traffic data
UserDisplayName: Simra
ThreadText: # Deep learning model training and processing requirement for Traffic data
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2018-10-11)
  
  I am a newbie in deep learning and am looking for advice on predicting traffic congestion events. I have a table for vehicle travel times data, another table with the road length segmented based on stop locations. I am thinking to derive the time-wise route-specific speed details based on stop locations. After initial data cleansing and messaging, my input parameters are the time and stop location with actual speed details. I train my model with the training dataset and validate it as per the deep learning recommended approach.
  
  So my questions are:
  
  1. Is this approach correct or how can I improve it? I am not sure if
     the number of inputs can be increased for better results.
  2. Which activation method will be best to utilize to get a range of conditions/event types rather than binary 1 or 0?
  3. This will require dealing with a bigger dataset of at least over a few GBs. This will evolve into around 200GBs in the final product. Can I use my professional grad laptop to process this data or if I should consider going to Big Data Processing power?
  
  Please advise. Thanks in advance for your help.
  
  **Tags:** deep-learning
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2018-10-12. Score: 0 | Accepted answer
  
  **Adjustments**
  
  There are a few considerations that may help with problem analysis:
  
  * Traffic data alone will produce limited predictive results. For instance, the onset of precipitation is critical input for any production-ready predictive model.
  * Traffic congestion is highly chaotic in that events cascade, thus what is colloquially called the butterfly effect, is a dominant challenge. What you can realistically achieve are what chaoticians call attractors. They are morphological features in phase spaces and auto-correlations that are predictable under specific conditions.
  * Modelling traffic requires further segmentation beyond stop locations to include turn options and merge points, both of which are critical factors in free flow and congestion.
  * Feedback from the field will DRASTICALLY improve prediction. Expecting the system to predict start to finish scenarios longer than a few minutes of potential congestion dynamics is unrealistic. Inputs will need to be continuous and the closer to real time the better.
  * The physical relationships between position, velocity, and acceleration must be built into the parameterized model in which parameters are continuously updated.
  
  We can assume that the system design predicts congestion for some purpose, which was not stated in the question. It is reasonable to assume, because of the economics of transportation, that the objective is to reduce the area under the probability distribution curve for undesirable events resulting from congestion.
  
  * Lost time
  * Accident occurrence
  * Fatalities
  
  The mechanism of control through which such objectives could be achieved can be any of these.
  
  * Notifying drivers of traffic conditions via cell towers or WiFi
  * Notifying drivers via dynamic sign display
  * Adjusting remotely configurable traffic signaling devices
  * Controlling gates
  
  These controls can be to human drivers or pilots or to automated driving or piloting systems. The context of the system is key to designing it properly, since the use cases are entirely driven by this context.
  
  **The Questions**
  
  * Is this approach correct, [and] how can I improve it? — suggestions above
  * I am not sure if the number of inputs can be increased for better results. — absolutely yes
  * Which activation method will be best to utilize to get a range of conditions/event types rather than binary 1 or 0? — A ReLU or one of its derivatives may produce the best results for off line training, however it may be advisable to look into real time approaches such as Q-learning. In either case, it is advisable to finish requirements definition, decide upon approach, and produce a general architectural diagram of the system before attending to such minutia as activation functions.
  * [Given the likely data set size of 200GB] can I use my professional grad laptop to process this data or if I should consider going to Big Data Processing power? — Using VLSI hardware acceleration from vendors such as Intel or NVidia is advisable. Over the course of time, the initial expense and learning curve may be absorbed by not having to pay for additional bandwidth for PasS or SaaS services.
  
  Regarding computing resources, it is inadvisable to begin with some of the most congested places.
  
  **Cities Definitely Too Congested**
  
  It is likely that these cities would require a super-computing platform of significant size and a multinational corporation sized budget.
  
  * Beijing
  * Dubai
  * Tokyo
  * Los Angeles
  * Chicago
  * London
  * Hong Kong
  * Shanghai
  * Paris
  * Amsterdam
  * Dallas
  
  Commuter locations such as Melbourne, Australia; Palm Beach, Florida; or New Haven, Connecticut are examples of good choices to start.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Dear username_1, thanks for your comprehensive reply and highlighting aspects which I was overlooking and oversimplifying .I thought I will try to remove the anomalies which are introduced by human or non-human induced factors. I am also thinking to add POIs data in addition to the weather or events data. How will you suggest preparing the input data? Initially I was thinking a time reference based on week(52), day(7), half an hour (96), route, speed, acceleration, velocity and actual travel time. Now I can add an event (type) or non event with it. How can we include POIs in this reference?  
  
  ---
  
  