Title: Study of the impact of rainfall on freeway traffic flow in Southeast China

Authors: Saini Yang; Jiayuan Ye; Xuechi Zhang; Hao Liu

Addresses: State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China. ' State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China. ' National ITS Center of Engineering and Technology, Research Institute of Highway, Ministry of Transport, Beijing 100088, China

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to quantify the impact of rainfall on freeway traffic flow using toll station data and precipitation data. Five rainfall categories were classified based on precipitation intensity. Hourly traffic volume and travel times were retrieved and analysed in three spatial scales: at toll stations, on freeway sections between two toll stations, and on freeway corridors composed of multiple sections. Travel times for passenger cars in each rainfall category were studied and the impact of rainfall on traffic volume and travel time was quantified. The non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was performed to check the significance of difference among various categories.Calculated traffic volume reduction coefficients and travel time incremental coefficients for each rainfall category were compared with existing research results, which showed obvious differences. Potential causes are discussed to explain the discrepancy in coefficient values.

Keywords: freeway traffic; motorway traffic; rainfall impact; non-parametric testing; traffic volume; travel time; China; precipitation intensity; passenger cars.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2012.049043

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2012 Vol.8 No.2/3, pp.230 - 241

Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

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