Modelling the Effects of Traffic-Calming Introduction to Volume-Delay Functions and Traffic Assignment

Traffic calming is introduced to minimise the negative results of motor vehicle use, for example, low safety level or quality of life, high noise and pollution. It can be implemented through the introduction of road infrastructure reducing the velocity and the traffic volume. In this paper, we studied how traffic-calming influences the traffic assignment. For the research, a traffic-calming measure of speed cushions on the Stachiewicza street in Krakow was taken. A method of extracting trajectories from aerial footage was shown, and it was used to build a model. For a given example, through driving characteristics research and microscopic modelling, volume-delay BPR functions were estimated-for a street with and without traffic calming. Later, a toy network of two roads of the same length, connecting the same origin and destination, was simulated using an equilibrium traffic assignment method. Simulations were conducted both with the use of PTV Vissim and Visum software and through individual calculations. According to the results of this paper, there was a difference in traffic volume according to the equilibrium traffic assignment in the aforementioned toy network as a function of total network traffic volume.

Automated summary

Traffic calming is introduced to minimize the negative impacts of motor vehicle use, such as low safety levels, poor quality of life, high noise, and pollution. This paper studied how traffic calming affects traffic assignment using the example of speed cushions on Stachiewicza street in Krakow. Results showed that traffic volume differed in equilibrium traffic assignment based on total network traffic volume in a toy network simulation.