Travel behaviour on congested freeways (ASTRA2009/005_OBF)
Overview
Background & policy context:
There was a need of the identification of parameters or functional contexts to evaluate the local effects of the removal of a bottleneck in a motorway network. The following models are needed:
- Probability of the transition of traffic flow on motorways from stable in the unstable conditions ("collapse") as a function of traffic demand.
- Relation for stable and unstable traffic flow, separated by link types and motorway profiles.
- Loss of time for road users if the traffic flow in a congestion area is instable rather than stable.
Objectives:
The travel behaviour of car drivers on motorways will be assessed to identify the determination factors of the travel process, which are responsible for the benefit of travel time savings and the estimation of air pollution.
With the variables of the travel process and those of traffic amount and infrastructure the speed pattern on a part of the motorway network will be described.
Methodology:
The project includes the following steps:
1. Creation of data bases
Procurement, processing and enrichment of data on traffic volumes and speeds at appropriate counting or measuring points in the Swiss highway network.
2. Development of the model system
- Modelling the congestion probability.
- Estimation of speed functions.
- Modelling of the number and length of the unstable episodes.
- Estimate the time loss in the unstable region.
- Implementation of the model system and creation of a planning tool.
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