Estimating traffic

An interesting application of SVMs is to predict traffic, based on related data. In the previous recipe, we used an SVM as a classifier. In this recipe, we will use an SVM as a regressor to estimate the traffic.

Getting ready

We will use the dataset available at https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Dodgers+Loop+Sensor. This is a dataset that counts the number of cars passing by during baseball games at the Los Angeles Dodgers home stadium. We will use a slightly modified form of that dataset so that it's easier to analyze. You can use the traffic_data.txt file, already provided to you. Each line in this file contains comma-separated strings formatted in the following manner:

• Day
• Time
• The opponent...