01595140

Component

While traffic flow (volume) is associated with variations in travel times or speeds, studies have shown that weather can play a significant role especially in the winter context of North American cold cities. This study investigated the effect of weather and temporal variables on travel speeds obtained from Bluetooth sensor data collected during winter time. This research is based on data from 2013-2015 collected from permanent sensors installed along one of the main urban arterials in Montreal, Canada. The hourly weather variables included were snow, rain, temperature, visibility, and wind speed. The effects were modeled at an hourly level using three linear regression models considering the whole dataset, only winter period data and only out of winter period data. The results confirmed the major importance of snow as a hindrance to travel speed. The effect of rising temperature was expectedly found to have slightly increased travel speeds as it increased. The impact of visibility and wind speed were found to have positive and negative benefits respectively as they increased although, their effect was not as pronounced as snow. More out of winter data is needed to clarify the effects of rain on travel speed. In regards to the temporal variables, greater speed reductions were unexpectedly observed in the fall than in the winter. It is interesting to note that the hourly count of travel times provided much of the explanatory power to the models suggesting that Bluetooth data may be a good estimator of traffic volume proportions.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AH010 Standing Committee on Surface Transportation Weather. Alternate title: Effect of Weather on Travel Speed from Bluetooth Sensor Data

01584066

16-3964

English

19p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Maps; References; Tables

Arterial highways; Bluetooth technology; Sensors; Traffic flow; Traffic volume; Urban highways; Weather conditions

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-3964

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 5:44PM