The impact of Planned Special Events (PSEs) on urban traffic congestion

Abstract

The transport infrastructure of many cities has not been able to keep up with the pace of growth in the motorization rate or to counteract the intensification of urban traffic. Rising in traffic congestion in cities not only impacts the productivity costing billions but also responsible for more than 40% of all CO2 emissions which results in global warming. While expansion and construction of new roads may be considered in some cases, in most, better management of existing infrastructure to lower traffic congestion is the only option.The current state of the art commercial solutions can predict the recurring traffic situations, as this behavior can be easily learned from historical data. The challenge is to predict the non-recurrent congestion caused by events such as accidents, adverse weather, construction zones and Planned Special Event (PSE). Past research has shown, PSEs such as concerts or sports games, festivals and conventions has a huge impact on everyday urban transportation. Therefore, the aim of the proposed research is to investigate the impact PSEs on urban traffic congestion.The proposed research is applying spatial-temporal big data mining methods to predict the impact of PSEs on the urban concession. Specifically, the proposed research will consider the characteristics of PSEs such as location, type, duration, audience and time and day of the event in the proposed analysis approach which enables to predict of urban congestion for future PSEs.

Managing Urban Mobility during Big Events through Living Lab Approach

“…In line with what was already found by Tempelmeier et al [3] and Fernando [6], we received confirmation through our case study that the prevalent use of private cars to attend an event results in an abrupt surge in traffic within the vicinity of the event venue, with ripple effects on traffic congestion spreading even further [29]. This impact includes issues like unauthorized parking and air quality concerns that particularly affect the local residents surrounding the event's influence area, as also highlighted by Han et al [10] in previous research.…”

“…Events such as football matches, concerts, trade fairs, and other major gatherings not only enrich the cultural fabric of cities but also strain their mobility infrastructure, leading to congestion and associated problems (e.g., extended travel times, air pollution, decreased overall quality of life, etc.) [6][7][8].…”

The effects of travel containment measures within COVID-19

“…This allows to fine-tune the functional characteristics of the different elements of the system, including a detailed analysis of the intersections and their different methods of regulation [31,32]. Vehicle flows can serve both to describe traffic and to predict or recommend a vehicle flow pattern in a network [23,33].…”

Uncovering the Spatiotemporal Patterns of Regional and Local Driver Sources in a Freeway Network

“…Sarvi et al [18] studied the patterns of traffic congestion in the Tokyo freeway. Fernando [19] analyzed the location and duration of traffic congestion caused by mass events. Pei et al [20] employed density clustering algorithms to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution of traffic congestion in cold weather.…”