Quantifying the Traffic Impacts of the COVID-19 Shutdown

Geographic information systems (GISs) are becoming more widely used in transportation planning agencies, especially among metropolitan transportation organizations. The extension of GIS into transportation (GIS-T) is driven largely by the requirements of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, and legislation by states that mandate the development of transportation programs to reduce traffic impacts. Traditionally, transportation modeling of traffic impacts, calculation of vehicle emissions, and consideration of wider transportation planning effects, including transit, have employed different modeling techniques, often in different agencies or in separate sections within an agency. The results from these modeling and planning exercises have more often than not been displayed on different map bases, using different graphic programs to represent the data. The requirements of federal and state programs are encouraging modelers and planners to consider more consistent methods of data integration and display, hence the growing interest in GIS-T. The role of GIS-T in regional transportation planning is evaluated, including data integration issues, the configuration of transportation networks for use with GIS, and the linkage of transportation models to GIS.

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Inference in road ecology research: what we know versus what we think we know

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2020.0140 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (7) ◽

pp. 20200140 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Fernanda Z. Teixeira ◽

Trina Rytwinski ◽

Lenore Fahrig

Keyword(s):

Habitat Quality ◽

Road Ecology ◽

Relative Importance ◽

Road Kill ◽

Single Mechanism ◽

Traffic Impacts ◽

Wildlife Populations

Roads and traffic impacts on wildlife populations are well documented. Three major mechanisms can cause them: reduced connectivity, increased mortality and reduced habitat quality. Researchers commonly recommend mitigation based on the mechanism they deem responsible. We reviewed the 2012–2016 literature to evaluate authors' inferences, to determine whether they explicitly acknowledge all possible mechanisms that are consistent with their results. We found 327 negative responses of wildlife to roads, from 307 studies. While most (84%) of these responses were consistent with multiple mechanisms, 60% of authors invoked a single mechanism. This indicates that many authors are over-confident in their inferences, and that the literature does not allow estimation of the relative importance of the mechanisms. We found preferences in authors' discussion of mechanisms. When all three mechanisms were consistent with the response measured, authors were 2.4 and 2.9 times as likely to infer reduced habitat quality compared to reduced connectivity or increased mortality, respectively. When both reduced connectivity and increased mortality were consistent with the response measured, authors were 5.2 times as likely to infer reduced connectivity compared to increased mortality. Given these results, road ecologists and managers are likely over-recommending mitigation for improving habitat quality and connectivity, and under-recommending measures to reduce road-kill.

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Evaluation of the Traffic Impacts of Mass Evacuation of Halifax: Flood Risk and Dynamic Traffic Microsimulation Modeling

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.1177/0361198118799169 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2672 (1) ◽

pp. 148-160 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

MD Jahedul Alam ◽

Muhammad Ahsanul Habib ◽

Kevin Quigley ◽

Tim L. Webster

Keyword(s):

Flood Risk ◽

Network Performance ◽

Comprehensive Evaluation ◽

Dynamic Traffic Assignment ◽

Network Capacity ◽

Transport Network ◽

Dynamic Traffic ◽

Traffic Impacts ◽

Microsimulation Modeling ◽

Mass Evacuation

This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of traffic impacts of a mass evacuation of the Halifax Peninsula under several flooding scenarios. Flood extent and associated damages to the transport network are identified through digital elevation modeling that intersects with the Halifax stream and transport networks. The resulting flood scenarios inform a traffic microsimulation model that uses a dynamic traffic assignment-based microsimulation approach and simulates the evacuation of 34,808 evacuees estimated from the Halifax Regional Transport Network Model. The simulation results suggest that flooding of the links by 7.9 m flood reduces alternative evacuation routes by 31.2%. It takes 15 hours to evacuate 83% of evacuees while the remaining 17% are not accommodated in the network due to reduced network capacity. The number of vehicles in the network has peaked at 13,000 in this flooding scenario. An evaluation of network performance reveals a sustained congestion prevailing from 4th to 7th hour of the evacuation. The novelty of this study is that it develops a comprehensive tool of flood risk and dynamic traffic microsimulation modeling to offer an in-depth evaluation of potential impacts during evacuation. The results will help emergency professionals in evacuation planning and making emergency decisions.

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Can Tube Tunnel Crossings Relieve Urban Congestion Problems? Izmir Tube Tunnel Project Proposal Under Scrutiny

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11092543 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 2543 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yavuz Duvarcı ◽

Tan Yigitcanlar

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Simulation Study ◽

Environmental Planning ◽

Urban Transport ◽

Sustainable Mobility ◽

Project Proposal ◽

Popular Approach ◽

Downtown Area ◽

Traffic Impacts ◽

Congestion Problems

Building underwater tube tunnel crossings to ease the urban congestion problems has become a popular approach for many cities across the globe. London, New York, Istanbul, Hamburg, Sydney and Brisbane are among these cities. However, the effectiveness and externalities of these expensive mega urban infrastructures have also been questioned widely among urban, transport and environmental planning scholars. Given the international popularity of the topic, this study places a new tube tunnel crossings project from Izmir, Turkey under the microscope. In this heuristic simulation study, policy-on scenarios were tested to determine possible impacts of the underwater tube tunnel-crossing project. The traffic impacts are discussed using simulations assigning the initial origin–destination data. The results of the study revealed that, given the two locations, outer and inner locations over the dagger-shape bay, the capacity increments on the bridge links and the links around the periphery highway did not bring any effective solutions beyond some minor improvements. The findings disclosed that the ineffectiveness of the tube tunnel crossing might be due to the excessive congestion happening all over the downtown area, which clogs the passageways to the bridge. The paper highlights the limitations of the tube tunnel-crossing project, emphasises the need for comprehensive investigations before committing to the project and advocates the emphasis to be actually given for sustainable mobility.

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CAVs and roundabouts: research on traffic impacts and design elements

Transportation Research Procedia ◽

10.1016/j.trpro.2020.09.008 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 49 ◽

pp. 83-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Apostolos Anagnostopoulos ◽

Fotini Kehagia

Keyword(s):

Design Elements ◽

Traffic Impacts

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Urban Regeneration in Historic Downtown Areas: An Ex-Ante Evaluation of Traffic Impacts in Athens, Greece

International Journal of Sustainable Transportation ◽

10.1080/15568318.2013.811331 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 9 (7) ◽

pp. 478-489 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Konstantinos Kepaptsoglou ◽

Matthew G. Karlaftis ◽

Ilias Gkotsis ◽

Eleni Vlahogianni ◽

Antony Stathopoulos

Keyword(s):

Urban Regeneration ◽

Ex Ante ◽

Traffic Impacts

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Basic Methods of Peak-Hour Traffic Generation Forecast about Urban Commercial Complex

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.488-489.1400 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 488-489 ◽

pp. 1400-1404 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ya Li Luo ◽

Chang Xin Zhang

Keyword(s):

Distribution Function ◽

Traffic Volume ◽

Traffic Density ◽

Density Functions ◽

Trip Generation ◽

Single Function ◽

Functional Complex ◽

Traffic Generation ◽

Traffic Impacts ◽

Function Peak

Based on analysis of the traffic impacts characteristics of the urban commercial complex, the article proposed that single-functional project itself generated traffic volume is related to time, and conforms to the corresponding Poisson distribution function. However, the multiple-functional complex itself generated peak-hour traffic volume is not a simple sum of each single-function peak volume, but is calculated by superposing the each function respective traffic density functions. Meanwhile, the article also explored the superposition and calculation method to obtain peak-hour traffic volume during forecasting the trip generation of the urban commercial complex.

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Conditional Bus Priority at Signalized Intersections: Better Service with Less Traffic Disruption

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.3141/1731-04 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 1731 (1) ◽

pp. 23-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 90

Author(s):

Peter G. Furth ◽

Theo H. J. Muller

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

Service Quality ◽

Signalized Intersections ◽

Operational Control ◽

Bus Priority ◽

Absolute Priority ◽

Traffic Impacts ◽

Schedule Adherence

Conditional priority for buses at signalized intersections means that late buses are given priority and early buses are not. This scheme is a method of operational control that improves service quality by keeping buses on schedule. A conditional bus priority implementation in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, is described. Results show the strong improvement in schedule adherence compared with a no-priority situation. Traffic impacts at an intersection were studied for three scenarios—no priority, absolute priority, and conditional priority. Compared with no priority, absolute priority increased delays significantly while conditional priority had almost no impact.

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