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Cover of Estimating Road Network Congestion and Associated Costs
Estimating Road Network Congestion and Associated Costs
  • Publication no: AP-R345-09
  • ISBN: 978-1-921551-80-2
  • Published: 15 December 2009

The objective of Austroads Project NS1203 (Estimating Road Network Congestion and Associated Costs) is to develop a procedure to calculate delay and associated congestion costs by making use of directly measurable traffic data. Network performance and congestion is calculated using data from real-time freeway management and signal control systems. A measurement-based method that can access a large set of traffic data in time and space offers the best approach to gain a good understanding of urban congestion, and subsequently an accurate estimation of congestion delay and associated costs.

A wide range of techniques have been used; these include modelling-only methods, a mix of modelling with density-flow functions and traffic counts, and measurement-only methods. The review has confirmed that the current research amongst road agencies in Australia and New Zealand on the new, online performance monitoring of freeways and arterials and the calculation of congestion are pioneering research areas.

  • Project Manager
  • 1. INTRODUCTION
  • 2. SOURCES OF CONGESTION DELAY
  • 3. REVIEW OF CONGESTION DELAY MEASUREMENT
    • 3.1. Australian Congestion Studies
      • 3.1.1. Austroads National Performance Indicator Program
      • 3.1.2. ARRB Travel Cost Model
      • 3.1.3. BTCE Congestion Study
      • 3.1.4. BTRE-COAG Congestion Review
    • 3.2. US National Performance Monitoring Programs
      • 3.2.1. Urban Mobility Report
      • 3.2.2. Urban Congestion Reporting Program
      • 3.2.3. Mobility Monitoring Program
      • 3.2.4. Summary of US National Performance Monitoring Programs
    • 3.3. Transport Canada Congestion Report
    • 3.4. UK Congestion Report
      • 3.4.1. Road Traffic Congestion in UK
      • 3.4.2. RAC Foundation Congestion Reports
      • 3.4.3. Congestion on Scottish Trunk Roads
    • 3.5. Summary of Findings
  • 4. REFERENCE PERFORMANCE VALUES
    • 4.1. Possible Reference Levels
    • 4.2. Proposed Reference Speeds
    • 4.3. Summary
  • 5. AIR POLLUTANT AND FUEL CONSUMPTION MEASUREMENT
    • 5.1. Air Pollutants and their Impacts
    • 5.2. Estimating Air Pollutants from Level of Service
      • 5.2.1. The Netherlands Study
      • 5.2.2. The New Zealand Study
      • 5.2.3. The INRETS Study in France
      • 5.2.4. Summary of the Three Studies
    • 5.3. Estimating Fuel Consumption
    • 5.4. Estimating Air Pollutants and Fuel Consumption from Link Speed
    • 5.5. Summary
  • 6. THE ARRB CONGESTION MODEL (ACM)
  • 7. USE OF ACM WITH SOME MELBOURNE DATA
    • 7.1. Step 1 – Select Time Period and Network Coverage
    • 7.2. Step 2 – Traffic Data Compilation
    • 7.3. Step 3 – Reference Speed Library
    • 7.4. Step 4 – Delay, Pollutant and Fuel Calculation
      • 7.4.1. Delay
      • 7.4.2. Air Pollutant Emissions and Fuel Consumption
    • 7.5. Step 5 – Choice of Unit Costs
      • 7.5.1. Unit Costs for Air Pollutants
      • 7.5.2. Unit Costs for Fuel Consumption
      • 7.5.3. Unit Costs for Travel Time
      • 7.5.4. Proportions of Different Vehicles and Fuels
    • 7.6. Step 6 – Delay, Pollutant and Fuel Cost Estimation
    • 7.7. Step 7 – Reporting
  • 8. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • REFERENCES
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