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Evaluation of Freeway Travel Time Variability and Reliability under Adverse Weather with TRANSMIT Data



Author(s)

Steven I. Chien and Kiran K. Kolluri

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DOI:10.17265/1934-7359/2012.06.001

New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102, USA

Traffic congestion has caused many detrimental effects including higher fuel consumption, more vehicle emissions, increased accidents, as well as greater tension due to uncertain travel time. In addition to delay, the variability and reliability of travel time has been of concern to motorists on their daily travel, especially during peak periods. The objective of this study is to examine freeway travel time variability and reliability under different traffic and weather conditions with the use of TRANSMIT data collected by roadside readers deployed on a 40-mile segment of the Interstate Highway I-287 in New Jersey. Travel time variability and reliability measures including mean travel time, the 95th percentile travel time, travel time index, buffer index, and planning time index under recurring and non-recurring congestion (adverse weather) are investigated. It was found that the standard deviation of travel time increased, due to the weather condition varying from dry to rain and to snow, while the buffer index increased from 29% to 45% and to 94%.

Travel time, variability, reliability, TRANSMIT, ITS, traveler information.