01622914

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2615-13

The ability to estimate freeway traffic demand during inclement weather events is critically needed for demand and supply management, level-of-service assessment, capacity verification, and other freeway operational and planning applications. Reliable travel demand prediction is also a useful input for freeway travel time reliability analyses and advanced traveler information systems. This paper investigates the effect of inclement weather on freeway demand with the use of hourly traffic and weather data collected for 5 years (2011–2015) at 15 urban freeway locations in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which represents a North American region experiencing distinct seasons with significant snowfall and cold temperatures in the winter. About 489,300 hourly traffic demand observations were used in the analysis, and more than 52,800 of those were under inclement weather. Freeway demand reduction factors were introduced for diverse weather variables, precipitation intensities, visibility levels, temperatures, weekdays and weekends, and different times of day. Variability across seasons and sites was also examined. The paper further explores traffic demand in the hours immediately preceding or following inclement weather events. Finally, freeway weather-related demand and capacity adjustment factors are compared. Lessons learned from the study along with recommendations for future Highway Capacity Manual editions are summarized.

01628078

17-00806

English

pp 113–122

2017

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309442040

Digital/other

Figures (2) ; References (19) ; Tables (5)

Freeways; Highway capacity; Rain; Travel demand; Weather conditions

Highway Capacity Manual

Milwaukee (Wisconsin)

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 10:11AM

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• Calibrating Vissim to Analyze Delay at Signalized Intersections
• Car Drivers’ Experienced Level of Service on Freeways
• Estimating the Effects of Urban Street Incidents on Capacity
• Estimation of Saturation Headway in Work Zones on Urban Streets
• Evaluation and Testing of Driver-Assistive Truck Platooning: Phase 2 Final Results
• Influence of Remotely Operated Stop–Slow Controls on Driver Behavior in Work Zones
• Measuring Performance on Two-Lane Highways: Empirical Investigation
• Modeling Pedestrian Delays at Signalized Intersections as a Function of Crossing Directions and Moving Paths
• Naturalistic Study of Truck Following Behavior
• Novel Area Occupancy–Based Method for Passenger Car Unit Estimation on Multilane Urban Roads Under Heterogeneous Traffic Scenario
• Operational Analysis of a Single-Lane Roundabout with a Mix of Driverless Vehicles
• Optimizing and Modeling Tollway Operations Using Microsimulation: Case Study Sanand Toll Plaza, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
• Preparing Oregon for Connected Vehicle Deployment: Application Prioritization Process
• Proposed Framework for Evaluating Spillback in the Highway Capacity Manual
• Queue Length at Signalized Intersections from Red-Time Formula and the Highway Capacity Manual Compared with Field Data
• Relationship Between Cycle Overflow Probability and Capacity at Signalized Intersections: Application for Delay Estimation