Westland row why so slow?: fusing social media and linked data sources for understanding real-time traffic conditions

The advent of real-time traffic streaming offers users the opportunity to visualise current traffic conditions and congestion information. However, real-time information highlighting the underlying reason for tail-backs remains largely unexplored. Broken traffic lights, an accident, a large concert, or road-works reveal important information for citizens and traffic operators alike. Providing such information in real-time requires intelligent mechanisms and user interfaces in order to (i) harness heterogeneous data sources (volume, velocity, variety, veracity) and (ii) make derived knowledge consumable so users can visualize traffic conditions and congestion information making better routing decisions while travelling. This work focuses on surfacing relevant information and explaining the underlying reasons behind traffic conditions. To this end, static data from event providers, planned road works together with dynamically emerging events such as a traffic accidents, localized weather conditions or unplanned obstructions are captured through social media to provide users real-time feedback to highlight the causes of traffic congestion.