Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

tc.sensors 0.3.0

MnDOT has retired trafdat and migrated to Mayfly, an API. This version of tc.sensors implements a new process using httr2.

New Features

  • NEW data functions
    • pull_sensor_headway() retrieves headway (time between vehicles in seconds) data from the Mayfly API. Useful for analyzing traffic flow patterns and vehicle spacing.
    • pull_sensor_speed() retrieves measured speed
    • pull_sensor_length() retrieves vehicle length data in feet, enabling vehicle classification (motorcycles, passenger cars, trucks).
    • pull_sensor_espeed() retrieves estimated speed data calculated using free-flow speed and traffic conditions.
    • All new functions support filtering by vehicle characteristics (speed, length, headway) for refined traffic analysis.

Improvements

  • All pull_sensor_*() functions now return data.table objects for improved performance and consistency.
  • Enhanced Mayfly API integration with updated query filtering functionality.
  • New parse_date_flexible() utility for more flexible date input formatting.
  • Comprehensive testing suite additions for sensor data pulls and date validation.
  • Updated pipe utility for better compatibility.
  • Extensive documentation improvements and code styling updates.

Deprecations

  • BREAKING CHANGE: add_weather() has been removed in 0.3.0. This function is no longer maintained; users should implement their own weather data workflows using alternative data sources and packages. (#deprecated)

Dependencies

  • Removed curl from Imports as it was only used by the deprecated add_weather() function.
  • Add httr2
  • Updated all package dependency versions to current releases.
  • Added minimum R version requirement: R >= 4.2.0.

tc.sensors 0.2.0.90001

  • Patch pull_extension() internal function. Remove port 8080 from URL. See issue #13 and PR #14.

tc.sensors 0.2.0

  • NEW functions!
    • add_distance() calculates the distance between sensors based on a given corridor and direction. Interpolates missing values by default.
    • generate_spatial_lines() generates an sf object with a LINESTRING for each given corridor, corridor direction, and corridor category. Limitations are noted in documentation.
  • Function update aggregate_sensor_data() is now aggregate_sensor()
    • _data() is superfluous, so was removed.
    • New name reinforces the function’s purpose, which is to aggregate data from a single sensor.
    • New logical paramenters
      • replace_impossible, replace impossible volume and occupancy values in the 30-second (raw) data with NA
      • interpolate_missing, interpolate missing volume and occupancy using a rolling mean of the two neighboring observations (before and after).
      • occupancy_threshold, set a threshold for occupancy when calculating speed. Very low occupancy percentages were causing
  • Made significant progress on “Calculate speed and delay” vignette
    • Chose a subset of sensors to consistently work with
    • Used mice to impute null speed values with a random forest model based on total volume, total occupancy, hour, and day type.
    • Added bibliography with regional and international relevant literature
    • New plots
      • Plot proportion of all speed values that are NA by hour for 10-minute and 1-hour aggregations.
      • Plot relationship between speed, occupancy % and relative volume for 10-minute and 1-hour aggregations.
      • Plot observed and imputed speed density at 1-hour aggregations by day type.
      • Plot imputed speed values at 1-hour aggregation by hour and day type.
      • Plot speed and delay using the median speed from hours 1-5 and 20-24 (chosen arbitrarily) by hour.
  • General updates
    • Shift from using dplyr to data.table
    • Added a NEWS.md file to track changes to the package.