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Empirical Studies on Traffic Flow in Inclement Weather

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dc.contributorVirginia Tech Transportation Instituteen
dc.contributorQueiroz, Cesaren
dc.contributor.authorHranac, Roberten
dc.contributor.authorSterzin, Emilyen
dc.contributor.authorKrechmer, Danielen
dc.contributor.authorRakha, Hesham A.en
dc.contributor.authorFarzaneh, Mohamadrezaen
dc.date.accessed2015-06-29en
dc.date.accessioned2015-07-31T20:05:17Zen
dc.date.available2015-07-31T20:05:17Zen
dc.date.issued2006-10en
dc.description.abstractWeather causes a variety of impacts on the transportation system. While severe winter storms, hurricanes, or flooding can result in major stoppages or evacuations of transportation systems and cost millions of dollars, day-to-day weather events such as rain, fog, snow, and freezing rain can have a serious impact on the mobility and safety of the transportation system users. These weather events can result in increased fuel consumption, delay, number of accidents, and significantly impact the performance of the transportation system. The overall goal of the research work undertaken in this study was to develop a better understanding of the impacts of weather on traffic flow. The research was intended to accomplish the following specific objectives: (1)Study the impact of precipitation on macroscopic traffic flow parameters over a full range of traffic states; 2) Study the impact of precipitation on macroscopic traffic flow parameters using consistent, continuous weather variables; 3) Study the impact of precipitation on macroscopic traffic flow parameters on a wide range of facilities; 4) Study regional differences in reaction to precipitation; and 5) Study macroscopic impacts of reduced visibility. The work documented in this report was conducted in two parts: 1) literature review and development of a data collection and analysis plan, and 2) analysis and interpretation of the results. The recommended plan combined the use of macroscopic traffic data archives with archived weather data in order to meet the research goals that include achieving better understanding of the impacts of weather on macroscopic traffic flow. The results of the research conducted for this study were helpful in identifying weather impacts of traffic flow in the three cities studied, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Baltimore and Seattle. No impacts were found on traffic stream jam density, but both rain and snow did impact traffic free-flow speed, speed-at-capacity and capacity and parameters varied with precipitation intensity. The results of these analyses are documented in the report. This report concludes with some recommendations of future research related to weather and traffic flow. Several ideas are presented including enhancing the macroscopic analysis used in this study. Additional work is proposed related to human factors and microscopic traffic modeling.en
dc.description.sponsorshipRoad Weather Management Program (U.S.)en
dc.format.extent114 pagesen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationHranac, R., Sterzin, E., Krechmer, D., Rakha, H. A., Farzaneh, M., & Arafeh, M. (2006). Empirical studies on traffic flow in inclement weather. (VT-2008-06). Washington, DC: United States. Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved from http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/weatherempirical/weatherempirical.pdf.en
dc.identifier.govdocFHWA-HOP-07-073en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/55110en
dc.identifier.urlhttp://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/weatherempirical/weatherempirical.pdfen
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUnited States. Federal Highway Administrationen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectWeatheren
dc.subjectTraffic flowen
dc.subjectStatistical modelsen
dc.subjectHuman factorsen
dc.titleEmpirical Studies on Traffic Flow in Inclement Weatheren
dc.typeGovernment documenten
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten

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