scholarly journals Assessing the Impact of Weather on Traffic Intensity

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Cools ◽  
Elke Moons ◽  
Geert Wets

Abstract This paper focuses on the effect of weather conditions on daily traffic intensities (the number of cars passing a specific segment of a road). The main objective is to examination whether or not weather conditions uniformly alter daily traffic intensities in Belgium, or in other words whether or not road usage on a particular location determines the size of the impacts of various weather conditions. This general examination is a contribution that allows policymakers to assess the appropriateness of countrywide versus local traffic management strategies. In addition, a secondary goal of this paper is to validate findings in international literature within a Belgian context. To achieve these goals, the paper analyzes the effects of weather conditions on both upstream (toward a specific location) and downstream (away from a specific location) traffic intensities at three traffic count locations typified by a different road usage. Perhaps the most interesting results of this study for policymakers are the heterogeneity of the weather effects between different traffic count locations, and the homogeneity of the weather effects on upstream and downstream traffic at specific locations. The results also indicate that snowfall, rainfall, and wind speed diminish traffic intensity, and high temperatures increase traffic intensity. Further generalizations of the findings might be possible by studying weather impacts on local roads and by shifting the focus of research toward travel behavior.

Author(s):  
Zihan Hong ◽  
Hani S. Mahmassani ◽  
Xiang Xu ◽  
Archak Mittal ◽  
Ying Chen ◽  
...  

This paper presents the development, implementation, and evaluation of predictive active transportation and demand management (ATDM) and weather-responsive traffic management (WRTM) strategies to support operations for weather-affected traffic conditions with traffic estimation and prediction system models. First, the problem is defined as a dynamic process of traffic system evolution under the impact of operational conditions and management strategies (interventions). A list of research questions to be addressed is provided. Second, a systematic framework for implementing and evaluating predictive weather-related ATDM strategies is illustrated. The framework consists of an offline model that simulates and evaluates the traffic operations and an online model that predicts traffic conditions and transits information to the offline model to generate or adjust traffic management strategies. Next, the detailed description and the logic design of ATDM and WRTM strategies to be evaluated are proposed. To determine effectiveness, the selection of strategy combination and sensitivity of operational features are assessed with a series of experiments implemented with a locally calibrated network in the Chicago, Illinois, area. The analysis results confirm the models’ ability to replicate observed traffic patterns and to evaluate the system performance across operational conditions. The results confirm the effectiveness of the predictive strategies tested in managing and improving traffic performance under adverse weather conditions. The results also verify that, with the appropriate operational settings and synergistic combination of strategies, weather-related ATDM strategies can generate maximal effectiveness to improve traffic performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2329
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Macioszek ◽  
Agata Kurek

Continuous, automatic measurements of road traffic volume allow the obtaining of information on daily, weekly or seasonal fluctuations in road traffic volume. They are the basis for calculating the annual average daily traffic volume, obtaining information about the relevant traffic volume, or calculating indicators for converting traffic volume from short-term measurements to average daily traffic volume. The covid-19 pandemic has contributed to extensive social and economic anomalies worldwide. In addition to the health consequences, the impact on travel behavior on the transport network was also sudden, extensive, and unpredictable. Changes in the transport behavior resulted in different values of traffic volume on the road and street network than before. The article presents road traffic volume analysis in the city before and during the restrictions related to covid-19. Selected traffic characteristics were compared for 2019 and 2020. This analysis made it possible to characterize the daily, weekly and annual variability of traffic volume in 2019 and 2020. Moreover, the article attempts to estimate daily traffic patterns at particular stages of the pandemic. These types of patterns were also constructed for the weeks in 2019 corresponding to these stages of the pandemic. Daily traffic volume distributions in 2020 were compared with the corresponding ones in 2019. The obtained results may be useful in terms of planning operational and strategic activities in the field of traffic management in the city and management in subsequent stages of a pandemic or subsequent pandemics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 697
Author(s):  
Xiang Gao ◽  
Linying Chen ◽  
Pengfei Chen ◽  
Yu Luo ◽  
Junmin Mou

The transport of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has significant impact on traffic capacity of waterways, especially the approach channels shared by LNG carriers and other types of ships (general cargo ships, container ships, etc.). Few studies take the behavioral characteristics of LNG carriers and their impacts into consideration. In this paper, we propose a framework for capacity analysis of shared approach channels based on the spatial–temporal consumption method. It consists of three modules: (1) the tide module predicts the tidal height and tidal time for identifying the time windows for LNG carriers; (2) the spatial–temporal consumption module is introduced to calculate the capacity of approach channels; (3) the LNG carrier navigation module is for analyzing the characteristics of LNG carriers and the impact on the capacity of approach channels. A spatial–temporal indexed chart is designed to visualize the utilization of the spatial–temporal resources. A case study on the approach channel of Yueqing Bay near the east coast of China is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the framework. The utilization rates of the approach channel and the impact of LNG carriers are presented using our method. The results of the case study indicate that the proposed traffic capacity analyzing framework can provide support for making traffic management strategies.


Aerospace ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Schultz ◽  
Sandro Lorenz ◽  
Reinhard Schmitz ◽  
Luis Delgado

Weather events have a significant impact on airport performance and cause delayed operations if the airport capacity is constrained. We provide quantification of the individual airport performance with regards to an aggregated weather-performance metric. Specific weather phenomena are categorized by the air traffic management airport performance weather algorithm, which aims to quantify weather conditions at airports based on aviation routine meteorological reports. Our results are computed from a data set of 20.5 million European flights of 2013 and local weather data. A methodology is presented to evaluate the impact of weather events on the airport performance and to select the appropriate threshold for significant weather conditions. To provide an efficient method to capture the impact of weather, we modelled departing and arrival delays with probability distributions, which depend on airport size and meteorological impacts. These derived airport performance scores could be used in comprehensive air traffic network simulations to evaluate the network impact caused by weather induced local performance deterioration.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 467-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Zong ◽  
Xiao Sun ◽  
Huiyong Zhang ◽  
Xiumei Zhu ◽  
Wentian Qi

This study investigates taxi drivers’ multi-day cruising behaviours with GPS data collected in Shenzhen, China. By calculating the inter-daily variability of taxi drivers’ cruising behaviours, the multi-day cruising patterns are investigated. The impacts of learning feature and habitual feature on multi-day cruising behaviours are determined. The results prove that there is variability among taxis’ day-to-day cruising behaviours, and the day-of-week pattern is that taxi drivers tend to cruise a larger area on Friday, and a rather focused area on Monday. The findings also indicate that the impacts of learning feature and habitual feature are more obvious between weekend days than among weekdays. Moreover, learning feature between two sequent weeks is found to be greater than that within one week, while the habitual feature shows recession over time. By revealing taxis' day-to-day cruising pattern and the factors influencing it, the study results provide us with crucial information in predicting taxis' multi-day cruising locations, which can be applied to simulate taxis' multi-day cruising behaviour as well as to determine the traffic volume derived from taxis' cruising behaviour. This can help us in planning of transportation facilities, such as stop stations or parking lots for taxis. Moreover, the findings can be also employed in predicting taxis' adjustments of multi-day cruising locations under the impact of traffic management strategies.


2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Beck ◽  
G. Prades ◽  
A.-G. Sadowski

The principal objective of our study was to optimise a municipal activated sludge wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to face high organic flows due to viticulture effluents inputs. Treatment file optimization consisted in testing different treatment lines, changing the number and volume of biological basins and clarifiers, with or without a buffer basin upstream, with a view to achieving a better reduction of COD. The actual WWTP biological stage is composed of two aerated basins whose total volume is 1365 m3. The studied cases are successively, the installation of a single basin of 1365 m3, then of several basins whose total volume remains constant and equal to 1365 m3. Another case was also considered, that of an aerated basin followed by a first clarifier and then, by another aerated basin and a second clarifier. All scenarios presented below were evaluated, for standard dry weather conditions and for high organic load conditions, as encountered during the grape harvest period. The method used was to carry out various simulations, using numerical modelling, and to compare the impact of different process line scenarios and management strategies on the activated sludge WWTP efficiencies.


Author(s):  
Sawanpreet Singh Dhaliwal ◽  
Xinkai Wu ◽  
John Thai ◽  
Xudong Jia

A number of studies in the past quantified the effect of rain on traffic parameters but were limited to wet areas. This research expands the literature by studying the effect of rain in a dry area such as Southern California and considering regional differences in the impact. Traffic data (loop detectors) and precipitation data (rain gauges) from the Los Angeles, California, metropolitan area were analyzed to access the effect of rain on traffic stream parameters such as free-flow speed, speed at capacity, and capacity. Rainfall events were categorized as light, medium, and heavy as discussed in the 2010 Highway Capacity Manual. Density plots and fundamental diagrams for rain types proved that free-flow speed, speed at capacity, and capacity were reduced by 5.7%, 6.91%, and 8.65%, respectively, for light rain; 11.71%, 12.34%, and 17.4%, respectively, for medium rain; and 10.22%, 11.85%, and 15.34%, respectively, for heavy rain. The reductions for free-flow speed were lower, whereas for speed at capacity and for capacity, they were higher than those reported in the 2010 manual. Moreover, headway increased during rain; this finding shows cautious driving behavior. Multiplicative weather adjustment factors were computed to compensate for the loss of speed and capacity. Also demonstrated was the spatial and temporal effect of rain on traffic. Downstream traffic was not much affected by a rainfall event, whereas the upstream traffic was negatively affected. This study is expected to support weather-responsive traffic management strategies for dry areas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5494
Author(s):  
Yang Shao ◽  
Zhongbin Luo ◽  
Huan Wu ◽  
Xueyan Han ◽  
Binghong Pan ◽  
...  

The impact of work zones on traffic is a common problem encountered in traffic management. The reconstruction of roads is inevitable, and it is necessary and urgent to reduce the impact of the work zone on the operation of traffic. There are many existing research results on the influence of highway work zones, including management strategies, traffic flow control strategies, and various corresponding model theories. There are also many research results on the impacts of urban road and subway construction on traffic operation, including construction efficiency, economic impact, and travel matrix. However, there are few studies concerning the choice of work zone location, and most previous studies have assumed that the work zone choice was scientific and reasonable. Therefore, it is reasonable to choose the location of the work zone and to assess whether there is room for improvement in the road form of the work zone, but this remains a research gap. Therefore, we studied a seven-lane main road T-intersection in Xi’an, China, and investigated a work zone located at this intersection that caused a road offset, leading to the non-aligned flow of main traffic. We designed two road improvement schemes and multiple transition schemes, used VISSIM software to evaluate the traffic operation of the two schemes, and used the entropy method to choose the suitability of the two schemes under different conditions. According to the results, in the best case, the driving time, delay, and number of stops are reduced by 44%, 66%, and 92%.


2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (7-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sitti Asmah Hassan ◽  
Lavine Wong ◽  
Nordiana Mashros ◽  
Hashim Mohammed Alhassan ◽  
Nur Sabahiah Abdul Sukor ◽  
...  

Speed is one of the important parameters of traffic flow that can be used to determine the performance of driver’s behaviour under various scenarios. Changes in weather conditions caused changes in drivers’ speed due to various reasons. In Malaysia, there is slightly high number of road accidents at night. Rainfall at night does not only cause poor visibility to drivers, but it also gives a sense of insecurity especially as there is a significant reduction in the visibility of the object in front. Improper road conditions can worsen the situation, for example, rainfall can cause water accumulation on road surfaces which can increase skidding problem, potholes and hydroplaning effect. In relation to these situations, hence it is crucial to understand how the abrupt situation affect response of driver’s in terms of the macroscopic behaviour. These unpredictable environmental changes seem like portraying a very unpleasant journey for drivers especially to travel under rainfall condition at night. Therefore, there is a need to observe how individual vehicles react in terms of speed adjustment and response to the different rainfall intensities downpour at night. Hence this study was conducted to determine the impact of different rainfall intensities at night on vehicles’ speed. Traffic data was obtained using automatic traffic counter at a cross section of a road at Pengkalan Raja, Pontian for about three months during monsoon season. Rainfall data report was obtained from the Department of Drainage and Irrigation, Pontian. From this study, it was found that there is a speed reduction from the dry condition regardless of rainfall intensities at night. As rainfall intensities at night higher, the speed reduction is higher as well except for heavy rainfall condition.   The mean speed, 15th percentile and 85th percentile of vehicles decrease with the increase in rainfall intensity at night. It can be concluded that rainfall have impact on vehicle’s speed irrespective of their intensities. Findings from this study can be used to help local authorities and transport planners in planning an efficient traffic management system for a safer travel experience to road users in Malaysia.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiancheng Weng ◽  
Lili Liu ◽  
Jian Rong

Snowy weather will significantly degrade expressway operations, reduce service levels, and increase driving difficulty. Furthermore, the impact of snow varies in different types of roads, diverse cities, and snow densities due to different driving behavior. Traffic flow parameters are essential to decide what should be appropriate for weather-related traffic management and control strategies. This paper takes Beijing as a case study and analyzes traffic flow data collected by detectors in expressways. By comparing the performance of traffic flow under normal and snowy weather conditions, this paper quantitatively describes the impact of adverse weather on expressway volume and average speeds. Results indicate that average speeds on the Beijing expressway under heavy snow conditions decrease by 10–20 km/h when compared to those under normal weather conditions, the vehicle headway generally increases by 2–4 seconds, and the road capacity drops by about 33%. This paper also develops a specific expressway traffic parameter reduction model which proposes reduction coefficients of expressway volumes and speeds under various snow density conditions in Beijing. The conclusions paper provide effective foundational parameters for urban expressway controls and traffic management under snow conditions.


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