Impact of Rainfall on Traffic Speed in Major Cities of China

Spatial constraints in urban areas very often lead to the application of traffic management measures to meet transport demands. Accordingly, it is very important to identify all potential impacts that could lead to reductions in the street network’s capacity. One such impact is weather conditions. The main motivation of this research is to analyze the impacts of rainfall on one of the most important segments of Belgrade’s street network that represents part of a freeway passing the city center. Our focus is on quantifying the impact of rainfall on speed and capacity. This paper proposes a new approach to analyzing the rainfall impact at the traffic lane level that provides additional possibilities to apply traffic management measures on the traffic lane level instead of at the direction level only. Functional dependences and differences in capacity and speed on traffic lanes were found under the influence of different rainfall intensities. Reductions in free-flow speed depend on the rain category and traffic lanes and vary from 4.5% to 11.58%, while reductions in traffic lane capacity range from 2.46% to 12.97%. We demonstrate the importance of considering the impact of rainfall at the traffic lane level, which could be quality input data for defining appropriate traffic management measures to mitigate the negative impacts.

show abstract

“…Zhang et al found a correlation between the congestion index and the intensity of precipitation (rainfall) [11].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

One Approach to Quantifying Rainfall Impact on the Traffic Flow of a Specific Freeway Segment

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

How rainfalls influence urban traffic congestion and its associated economic losses at present and in future: taking cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China for example?

Zhou

Mao

Zhao

et al. 2022

Theor Appl Climatol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tra c congestion is one of serious problems in cities; rainfalls would exacerbate tra c congestion, and thus result in huge economic losses. However, limited studies focused on how rainfalls in uenced tra c congestion and its associated economic losses. Based on detailed hourly data, we estimated how tra c congestion index (TCI) changed with different rainfall intensities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, China, and we also explored their economic losses. The results illustrated that all cities presented the similar trend of daily tra c congestion, and morning peak occurred 2 hours later on holidays than workdays. Rainfall had signi cant impacts on tra c congestion for most time windows, except midnight. Tra c congestion increased with rainfall intensities, but smaller cities were more vulnerable to rainfall intensity than megacities. Rainfalls led to 0.98 billion yuan of extra economic losses in 2019, 38% of which occurred under heavy rainfalls. Tra c congestion in 2019 caused a total economic cost of 31.5 billion yuan in the BTH region (0.4% of its GDP), including the recurrent cost and economic losses due to rainfalls; besides, the social cost and direct cost contributed the same share of 49.4%, with 1.2% from the environmental costs. Considering future urban development and climate change, it is bene cial to establish the climate-resilient transportation system for avoiding future serious tra c congestion as well as huge economic losses in future.

show abstract

Utilizing the Harvesting of Rainwater to Provide Safe Road Transportation Efficiency and Increase Water Resources in the Context of Climatic Change

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This research investigates the effect of heavy rain on highway traffic volume and average speed, and proposes a recharging well harvesting system as an alternative freshwater source in the context of climate change. The Cairo Autostorad highway was taken as a case study. The highway climate data were collected, and traffic was measured using Metrocount equipment during the period from 2008 to 2020. The results show that the studied road is about 12 km long, and about 40 water ponds exist along the route. Each pond has an estimated water volume of 300 m3, and a 30 cm recharging well, with a maximum recharging capacity of 25 m3/h with satisfactory performance, is recommended to be constructed for rainwater harvesting. The recharging wells will clear the ponding volume within 2.5 to 3.5 h after the rainfall has stopped. The design incorporates a 1.2 safety factor against blockage inside the well. In addition, a model was established between the average rainfall depth and the average measured highway speed for the period (2008–2020) during rainy months, indicating an exponential function with a determination factor R2 = 0.7076. The present rainfall (2020) and the representative concentration path (RCP) for 4.5 and 8.5 emissions scenarios were used to simulate the rainfall for future years: the 2040s, 2060s, 2080s, and 2100s. The results show that in the winter season for the current scenario (2020), the average rainfall depth was 45 mm, and the highway speed was 78 km/h. For the RCP 4.5 emission scenarios for the 2040s, 2060s, 2080s, and 2100s, the rainfall depths were 67.8, 126.4, 131.2, and 143.9 mm, and the corresponding reductions in the highway speeds were 23, 34, 35.3, and 36.9%, respectively, compared to the baseline scenario (2020). On the other hand, the RCP 8.5 emission scenarios show a reduction in the highway speed of 23, 34.5, 36.9, and 36.9% for the years 2040, 2060, 2080, and 2100, respectively, due to rainfall depths of 68.7, 128.4, 143.9, and 143.9 mm, respectively. This study helps policymakers to make wise decisions regarding sustainable water resource management and highway traffic problems related to rainwater depths in the context of climate change.

show abstract

Impact of Rainfall on Traffic Speed in Major Cities of China

Cited by 3 publications

References 38 publications

One Approach to Quantifying Rainfall Impact on the Traffic Flow of a Specific Freeway Segment

One Approach to Quantifying Rainfall Impact on the Traffic Flow of a Specific Freeway Segment

How rainfalls influence urban traffic congestion and its associated economic losses at present and in future: taking cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China for example?

Utilizing the Harvesting of Rainwater to Provide Safe Road Transportation Efficiency and Increase Water Resources in the Context of Climatic Change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About