Work

Patch-Based Transformer–Graph Framework (PTSTG) for Traffic Forecasting in Transportation Systems

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Accurate traffic forecasting underpins intelligent transportation systems. We present PTSTG, a compact spatio-temporal forecaster that couples a patch-based Transformer encoder with a data-driven adaptive adjacency and lightweight node graph blocks. The temporal module tokenizes multivariate series into fixed-length patches to capture short- and long-range patterns in a single pass, while the graph module refines node embeddings via learned inter-node aggregation. A horizon-specific head emits all steps simultaneously. On standard benchmarks (METR-LA, PEMS-BAY) and the LargeST (SD) split with horizons {3, 6, 12}→{15, 30, 60} minutes, PTSTG delivers competitive point-estimate results relative to recent temporal graph models. On METR-LA/PEMS-BAY, it remains close to strong baselines (e.g., DCRNN) without surpassing them; on LargeST, it attains favorable average RMSE/MAE while trailing the strongest hybrids on some horizons. The design preserves a compact footprint and single-pass, multi-horizon inference, and offers clear capacity-driven headroom without architectural changes.

Source: Applied Sciences

DOI: 10.3390/app151910468

Authors: Grach Mkrtchian, Mikhail Gorodnichev

Institution: Moscow Technical University of Communication and Informatics

Language: English

Topic: Traffic Prediction and Management Techniques

Subfield: Building and Construction

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,896