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Title:

Evaluation of Speed Limit Management on C-32 Highway Access to Barcelona

Accession Number:

01334140

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

In July 2007, the Autonomous Government of Catalonia passed a 73-measure plan to improve air quality in the metropolitan region of Barcelona. This law includes speed limitations to 80 km/h which came into force on January 1st 2008 on major highways around the city (e.g. the C-32 highway). One year later, dynamic speed limits (DSL), maintaining the maximum speed limit of 80 km/h, became operational. The evaluation of this policy requires a quantitative analysis in congestion reduction, emissions and traffic safety. As the comparison between several scenarios should be performed with homogeneous demand scenarios (i.e. same productivity), direct empirical measurements are not representative, due to the different traffic demands in the different periods (mainly due to the economic recession in Spain). CTMSIM macroscopic traffic simulator was applied. Data in order to construct the baseline demand scenario were collected from double loop detectors installed in each lane along 14.5km of the C32 highway, about 5km from Barcelona. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the social profitability of this policy in terms of travel times, emissions and safety benefits. In addition, some guidelines for the construction of homogeneous demand scenarios suitable for comparisons, the characterization of fundamental diagrams, the macroscopic model of the highway based on the cell transmission model (CTM), and the definition and assessment of the different elements constituting the objective function in monetary units, are also provided. It is concluded from the discussion, that the speed limit management on metropolitan highways accessing to large cities, cannot provide in case of isolated application significant benefits in terms of traffic flow.

Monograph Accession #:

01329018

Report/Paper Numbers:

11-2397

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Torne Santos, Josep Maria
Rosas, Dulce
Soriguera, Francesc

Pagination:

23p

Publication Date:

2011

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2011-1-23 to 2011-1-27
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

DVD

Features:

Figures (8) ; References (21) ; Tables (2)

Geographic Terms:

Barcelona (Spain)

Subject Areas:

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-2397

Files:

TRIS, TRB

Created Date:

Feb 17 2011 6:09PM