Evaluation of Traffic Congestion due to Heavy Snowfall in Sapporo Metropolitan Area Using Macroscopic Fundamental Diagrams (MFD)

Date and Time: Wednesday, May 10, 2023: 8:20 AM - 10:00 AM
Location: Keck 100

 

Lead Presenter:  Toru Hagiwara, Professor
Affiliation:  Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University
Social Media Handle:  None

Lead Presenter Biography

Name: Toru HAGIWARA
Office: Division of Civil Engineering　Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University
E-mail: hagiwara@eng,hokudai.ac.jp
Education:
1984.3 Degree of MS in civil engineering, the graduate school of engineering, Hokkaido University.
Research and professional experience:
1984.4 - 1993.3 Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University.
1992.3 Degree of PhD in civil engineering, Hokkaido University.
1993.4 - 2010.3 Associate professor, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University.
2010.4 - present Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University.

Presentation related to driver’s visibility in winter
Yuki Nakamura, Toru Hagaiwara, and et al., Investigation of Relationship Between Weather Conditions and Visibility Conditions on the Road in Winter, TRBAM-23-02666, 102nd Annual Meeting, 2023.

NAKAMURA, Yuki, HAGIWARA, Toru, NAGATA, Yasuhiro and TAKAHASHI, Sho, Development of Poor Visibility Assessment Method in Winter Using Images Taken by On-Board Video Camera, Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, 2022.

Ohashi, Kazuhito, Nagata, Yasuhiro, Kaneda, Yasuhiro, Hagiwara, Toru and Takahashi, Sho, Development of Road Visibility Inspection System Using Driving Video Images Recorded by On-board Video Camera, World Road Association (PIARC), 2022.

End 

Co-Authors

CO-AUTHORS
Masanori Matsuda, Professional Engineer, Dept of Transportation, Docon Co.,Ltd
Chuo-ku, kita 1, Nishi 1, Sapporo sosei Square 24F, Sapporo, Japan, 060-0001
Email: mm1700@docon.jp

Sho Takahashi, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Hokkaido University
Kita-ku, Kita 13, Nishi 8, Sapporo, Japan, 060-8628
Email: stakahashi@eng.hokudai.ac.jp

Presentation Description 

The present study attempts to represent the occurrence of traffic congestion due to heavy snow over the Sapporo metropolitan area using Macroscopic fundamental diagrams (MFD). Merits of MFD is able to get an overview of road network performance as an area, and to know the target values for traffic demand management. However, we cannot discuss the performance of individual routes because it is an indicator as an overview of road network performance.
The number of vehicles (K: vehicles on the road network) and their average speed (V: km/hour) were observed on the Sapporo metropolitan area every minute using ETC 2.0 probe data in 2021/22 winter. The average traffic flow rate (Q: vehicles km/hour) was obtained from the product of K and V. Q means the number of vehicles in the Sapporo metropolitan area traveled per hour. Heavy snowfall on February 21 and 22 caused widespread traffic congestion. Speeds became very slow, peaking at about 10 km/hour. Value of Q in the Sapporo metropolitan area was half level as that on usual days in winter.
Based on results of MFD, it is considered that the MFD shape indicated by Q-K relationship suggests the road network performance in the Sapporo metropolitan area in winter. The value of Q decreased due to snowfall, and value of Q increased due to snow removal operations. In the future, we would like to create MFDs for multiple situations during the winter season to verify the relationship between the actual traffic conditions and the MFD shape.

Extended Summary

Extended Abstract

Download Extended Abstract PDF 

Presentation Video