Measuring Non-Recurring Congestion in Small to Medium Sized Urban Areas.

摘要

Understanding the relative magnitudes of recurrent vs. non-recurrent congestion in an urban area is critical to the selection of proper countermeasures and the appropriate allocation of resources to address congestion problems. Small to medium sized cities such as Birmingham, AL typically lack the extensive traffic sensor networks necessary to monitor and record traffic performance on a continuous basis. Alternative methods are needed to gain an understanding of the magnitudes of recurrent and non-recurrent congestion and implement proper countermeasures to reduce them. The objective of this study was to test methodologies for quantifying non-recurrent congestion in a small to medium sized urban area such as Birmingham which has limited traffic monitoring infrastructure. More specifically, the study investigated the potential use of commercially available vehicle probe data to quantify incident-related non-recurrent congestion on key interstate facilities in the Birmingham region. Archived GPS probe data collected in the Birmingham Region were analyzed and combined with accident reports from the States ASAP (Alabama Service and Assistance Patrol) incident response system to test the effectiveness of measuring non-recurrent congestion in this manner.