Detection and Classification of Vehicles on a Straight Two-Lane Road

Traffic predictions assume that passenger and goods traffic will dramatically increase in the following decade. This means an increase in travel time, since extensions of the existing infrastructure are either very expensive or very difficult to realize. A solution to this problem is an intelligent traffic management system to efficiently use the existing transport infrastructure. In order to make this system work, a continuous supply of current traffic information is needed. Radar sensors offer significant advantages over comparable sensors for traffic monitoring, e.g. immunity to dust and maintenance-free operation. Among all radar systems, the Doppler radar is the most inexpensive available. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether passing vehicles can be adequately detected and classified by use of a Doppler radar for straight streets.