Evaluating urban downtown one-way to two-way street conversion using multiple resolution simulation and assignment approach

There is a developing trend to change the flow configuration in urban downtown or central business districts (CBD) from one way to two way. However, it has been difficult to reasonably estimate the traffic flow resulting from the two-way conversion. This paper presents a multiple resolution simulation and assignment approach to estimate traffic and environmental impacts due to different flow configuration scenarios. It is based on the logical integration of an origin-destination (OD) matrix estimation method, a mesoscopic traffic simulation model, and a microscopic dynamic traffic assignment model. The dynamic traffic assignment model is employed in conjunction with a method to estimate dynamic OD demand from collected link and movement traffic counts to reassign the traffic onto the proposed two-way flow configurations. The reassigned traffic is then loaded into the microscopic simulation model to permit detailed analysis of traffic and environmental impacts. A case study based on the El Paso, Tex. CBD network is conducted to illustrate the performance of the proposed methodology. The application highlights the unique features in the methodological aspect and illustrates the considerable benefits resulting from the proposed MRSA framework. Possible drawbacks and benefits of the conversion are discussed.