Finding and Analyzing True Effect of Non-recurrent Congestion on Mobility and Safety

Pravin Varaiya

Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley

Abstract: This report summarizes empirical research about the causes and impact of non-recurrent congestion. A method is presented to divide the total congestion delay in a freeway section into six components: the delay caused by incidents, special events, lane closures, and adverse weather; the potential reduction in delay at bottlenecks that ideal ramp metering can achieve; and the remaining delay, due mainly to excess demand. The method can be applied to any site with minimum calibration, but it requires data about traffic volume and speed; the time and location of incidents, special events and lane closures; and adverse weather. The method is illustrated by applying it to a 45-mile section of I-880 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Data limitations preclude applying the method statewide. A simpler method, which depends only on routine data collected in the PeMS system, has been implemented. A PeMS application now provides a ‘congestion pie’ for any district or freeway segment. The pie divides the total congestion delay into three categories: potential reduction, excess demand, and accidents; and an unexplained, ‘miscellaneous’, category.

Keywords: Engineering; freeway congestion; non-recurrent congestion; congestion pie; weather; ramp metering; loop detector (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-08-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/3mh7d161.pdf;origin=repeccitec (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt3mh7d161

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lisa Schiff ().