Microscopic Vehicle Trajectory Datasets from UAV-collected Video for Heterogeneous, Area-Based Urban Traffic

TL;DR

This paper presents openly accessible UAV-collected microscopic vehicle trajectory datasets capturing complex urban traffic dynamics, enabling advanced research in traffic modeling, safety, and behavior analysis.

Contribution

It introduces novel, high-resolution vehicle trajectory datasets from UAV footage in heterogeneous urban traffic, validated and suitable for diverse traffic research applications.

Findings

Datasets include time-stamped positions, speeds, accelerations, and classifications.

Collected in dense, mixed traffic conditions in India.

Validated against manual counts and probe data.

Abstract

This paper offers openly available microscopic vehicle trajectory (MVT) datasets collected using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in heterogeneous, area-based urban traffic conditions. Traditional roadside video collection often fails in dense mixed traffic due to occlusion, limited viewing angles, and irregular vehicle movements. UAV-based recording provides a top-down perspective that reduces these issues and captures rich spatial and temporal dynamics. The datasets described here were extracted using the Data from Sky (DFS) platform and validated against manual counts, space mean speeds, and probe trajectories in earlier work. Each dataset contains time-stamped vehicle positions, speeds, longitudinal and lateral accelerations, and vehicle classifications at a resolution of 30 frames per second. Data were collected at six mid-block locations in the national capital region of India, covering diverse traffic compositions and density levels. Exploratory analyses highlight key behavioural patterns, including lane-keeping preferences, speed distributions, and lateral manoeuvres typical of heterogeneous and area-based traffic settings. These datasets are intended as a resource for the global research community to support simulation modelling, safety assessment, and behavioural studies under area-based traffic conditions. By making these empirical datasets openly available, this work offers researchers a unique opportunity to develop, test, and validate models that more accurately represent complex urban traffic environments.