TRB Pubsindex
Text Size:
x

« Prev Next »

Return to Results | New Search

Bookmark and Share

Title:

Identifying Incident-Induced Diversions and Contributing Factors

Accession Number:

01366532

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

Growing congestion and delays underline the importance of understanding the impacts of diverting traffic. This study utilizes loop detector data and incident records on I-66 in northern Virginia to empirically investigate the existence of incident-induced diversion behavior and statistically analyze connections to incident properties, traffic conditions, and trip characteristics. This research diverges from previous studies in two aspects. The first distinction lies in identifying the occurrence of diversion based on aggregate field data. A dynamic programming based procedure is used to identify diversions by isolating transient level shifts. Secondly, the study associates incident-induced diversion with measurable incident and traffic characteristics through a binary logit model. The evidence highlights the effect of incident duration. Specifically, the probability of triggering a diversion increases when an incident lasts longer. In addition, the magnitude of traffic flow disruption plays an important role in triggering diversion. The probability of observing an incident-induced diversion has a statistically significant relationship both to the number of blocked general-purpose lanes (positive) and the speed at the incident location (negative). Echoing the findings of previous studies, the effect of trip purpose upon diversion is also supported. Incidents occurring during periods dominated by non-work (weekday off-peak) and non-peak travel (weekends) appear to have a much higher probability of triggering a diversion than otherwise identical incidents occurring during peak work travel periods.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB20 Freeway Operations

Monograph Accession #:

01362476

Report/Paper Numbers:

12-1724

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Yin, Weihao
Murray-Tuite, Pamela
Wernstedt, Kris

Pagination:

20p

Publication Date:

2012

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2012-1-22 to 2012-1-26
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Subject Areas:

Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I71: Traffic Theory; I73: Traffic Control

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2012 Paper #12-1724

Files:

TRIS, TRB

Created Date:

Feb 8 2012 5:04PM