01029820

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/1945-05

http://scholar.google.com...arma&publication_year=2006

Traffic volume fluctuates from time to time and from location to location, with significant variations in demand as a result. The increases in travel during statutory holiday periods are substantial, and some critical traffic problems have been reported. An understanding of this substantial variation in the volume of traffic can assist transportation agencies in developing practical countermeasures in aspects such as traffic control plans, signal timing, safety programs, traffic volume monitoring, and prediction. The literature on holiday traffic is limited, and no effort has been made to examine statistically the significance of changes in traffic volume due to holiday effects. With the past 20 years of data collected by permanent traffic counters on highways in Alberta, Canada, holiday effects on road traffic are shown graphically. Then, the nonparametric Wilcoxon matched pair test is used to test the variation characteristics of normal flow, the Friedman method is applied to investigate the holiday effects on weekly and daily traffic, and the hourly volume pattern changes are examined by a combination of χ2 and binomial tests. The test results reveal that holidays substantially contribute to the variability of traffic. The weekly volume variations during holiday periods are significant in many cases, holiday effects on daily and hourly traffic are evident, and the directional holiday traffic peaking features are strong. Meanwhile, general identifications of the affected holidays for different types of roads are provided. Potential implications of these findings are discussed.

01031684

English

pp 40-48

2006

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

0309099536

Print

Figures (5) ; References (21) ; Tables (2)

Binomial distributions; Chi square test; Holidays; Statistical analysis; Statistics; Traffic congestion; Traffic volume

Daily variations; Holiday travel; Hourly variations

Alberta

Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I71: Traffic Theory; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Mar 3 2006 10:48AM

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