Mechanism for occupancy based traffic control

An occupancy-based traffic control system for augmenting traffic control mechanisms corresponding to buildings of one or more building types within a geographic subsector, the occupancy-based traffic control system comprising:

• a subsector occupancy aggregator, that receives energy consumption and outside temperature streams corresponding to a portion of the buildings, and that employs occupancy components for each building within said portion of the buildings to process said streams, and that generates average occupancy components for each building type within said portion of the buildings and a first aggregated occupancy component for said portion of the buildings, wherein said occupancy components are generated by exclusively processing said stream, said occupancy components comprising:
• a lower bound of energy consumption as a function of outside temperature when a corresponding one of said one or more buildings is at minimum occupancy;
• a normalized occupancy profile component as a function of a prescribed time increment;
• a marginal energy consumption component as a function of outside temperature;
• and
• a daily occupancy level component for each of a plurality of days, wherein said daily occupancy component is a function of said normalized occupancy profile component and said marginal energy consumption component;
• an other facility occupancy estimator, coupled to said subsector occupancy aggregator, that receives said average occupancy components, and that matches said average occupancy components to remaining ones of the buildings not in said portion according to building type, and that generates a second aggregated occupancy component for said remaining ones;
• a subsector traffic control processor, that employs said first and second aggregated occupancy components to determine an occupancy estimate for the one or more buildings, and that modifies defaults of corresponding traffic control devices based on said occupancy estimate to optimize flow of pedestrians;
• and
• a regional traffic control center, coupled to said subsector traffic control processor, that provides said defaults for said corresponding traffic control devices.

An occupancy-based traffic control method for augmenting traffic control mechanisms corresponding to buildings of one or more building types within a geographic subsector, the method comprising:

• receiving energy consumption and outside temperature streams corresponding to a portion of the buildings, and employing occupancy components for each building within the portion of the buildings to process the streams, and generating average occupancy components corresponding to each building type within the portion of the buildings and a first aggregated occupancy component for the portion of the buildings, wherein the occupancy components are generated by exclusively processing the streams, the occupancy components comprising:
• a lower bound of energy consumption as a function of outside temperature when a corresponding one of the one or more buildings is at minimum occupancy;
• a normalized occupancy profile component as a function of a prescribed time increment;
• a marginal energy consumption component as a function of outside temperature;
• and
• a daily occupancy level component for each of a plurality of days, wherein the daily occupancy component is a function of the normalized occupancy profile component and the marginal energy consumption component;
• matching the average occupancy components to remaining ones of the buildings not in the portion according to building type, and generating a second aggregated occupancy component for the remaining ones;
• and
• employing the first and second aggregated occupancy components to determine an occupancy estimate for the buildings, and modifying defaults of corresponding traffic control devices based on the occupancy estimate to optimize flow of pedestrians.