Assessing the Impact of Game Day Schedule and Opponents on Travel Patterns and Route Choice using Big Data Analytics

The transportation system is crucial for transferring people and goods from point A to point B. However, its reliability can be decreased by unanticipated congestion resulting from planned special events. For example, sporting events collect large crowds of people at specific venues on game days and disrupt normal traffic patterns. The goal of this study was to understand issues related to road traffic management during major sporting events by using widely available INRIX data to compare travel patterns and behaviors on game days against those on normal days. A comprehensive analysis was conducted on the impact of all Nebraska Cornhuskers football games over five years on traffic congestion on five major routes in Nebraska. We attempted to identify hotspots, the unusually high-risk zones in a spatiotemporal space containing traffic congestion that occur on almost all game days. For hotspot detection, we utilized a method called Multi-EigenSpot, which is able to detect multiple hotspots in a spatiotemporal space. With this algorithm, we were able to detect traffic hotspot clusters on the five chosen routes in Nebraska. After detecting the hotspots, we identified the factors affecting the sizes of hotspots and other parameters. The start time of the game and the Cornhuskers’ opponent for a given game are two important factors affecting the number of people coming to Lincoln, Nebraska, on game days. Finally, the Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBN) approach was applied to forecast the start times and locations of hotspot clusters in 2018 with a weighted mean absolute percentage error (WMAPE) of 13.8%

Interactive Visual Analysis of Networked Systems: Workflows for Two Industrial Domains

We report on a first study of interactive visual analysis of networked systems. Working with ABB Corporate Research and Ericsson Research, we have created workflows which demonstrate the potential of visualization in the domains of industrial automation and telecommunications. By a workflow in this context, we mean a sequence of visualizations and the actions for generating them. Visualizations can be any images that represent properties of the data sets analyzed, and actions typically either change the selection of data visualized or change the visualization by choice of technique or change of parameters

Environmental impact of combined ITS traffic management strategies

Transport was responsible for 20% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in Europe during 2011 (European Environmental Agency 2013) with road transport being the key contributor. To tackle this, targets have been established in Europe and worldwide to curb transport emissions. This poses a significant challenge on Local Government and transport operators who need to identify a set of effective measures to reduce the environmental impact of road transport and at the same time keep the traffic smooth. Of the road transport pollutants, this paper considers NOx, CO2 and black carbon (BC). A particular focus is put on black carbon, which is formed through incomplete combustion of carboneous materials, as it has a significant impact on the Earth’s climate system. It absorbs solar radiation, influences cloud processes, and alters the melting of snow and ice cover (Bond et al. 2013). BC also causes serious health concerns: black carbon is associated with asthma and other respiratory problems, heart attacks and lung cancer (Sharma 2010; United States Environmental Protection Agency 2012). Since BC emissions are mainly produced during the decelerating and accelerating phases (Zhang et al. 2009), ITS actions able to reduce stop&go phases have the potential to reduce BC emissions. This paper investigates the effectiveness of combined ITS actions in urban context in reducing CO2 and BC emissions and improving traffic conditions

Road Pricing: The Potential for Comparative Monitoring. A Report to the London Planning Advisory Committee.

This study was designed to review the proposals for road user charging in the Randstad, Stockholm, Oslo and Singapore, to determine the intentions for monitoring of each of these proposed schemes, to assess the implications for the development of policy in London, and to identify any opportunities for obtaining experience which would help in clarifying the uncertainties associated with proposals for road pricing in London. The study reviewed the objectives and operational requirements for road pricing in London and the criticisms levelled against such proposals. On this basis it developed a series of requirements for monitoring and information gathering to help clarify the outstanding uncertainties. These were used as a check list for a series of discussions with those responsible for proposals in the case study cities. Discussions indicated that the proposals in most cities had changed markedly in the period since the study was commissioned. These changes, and the resulting nature of the proposals, meant that only the proposals for Stockholm were sufficiently similar to those in London to justify collaborative monitoring. The report recommends that such collaboration be developed. However, both the Randstad and Oslo schemes offer the opportunity for obtaining information on actual or predicted user response, while the Singapore proposals will provide valuable experience of new technology. It is recommended that all of these are pursued. The discussions highlighted several lessons of direct relevance to the development of policy in London. In particular it is seen as important to keep the specification of the measures simple; to pursue extensive consultation with those who might be affected and with all political parties and government bodies who might be involved in policy decisions; to provide clear guidance on the anticipated uses of the revenue: and to develop a system which is implemented flexibly, so that problems can be remedied as they arise. In this context, the role of assessment and monitoring is limited. It should not be used to delay decisions; however, once a commitment is made to proceed, experience from elsewhere will be of value in informing the consultations. A carefully designed monitoring programme will be important in assessing and enhancing a scheme once implemented. It is recommended that the monitoring programme should be based on the requirements identified in this report

Traffic engineering in ambient networks: challenges and approaches

The focus of this paper is on traffic engineering in ambient networks. We describe and categorize different alternatives for making the routing more adaptive to the current traffic situation and discuss the challenges that ambient networks pose on traffic engineering methods. One of the main objectives of traffic engineering is to avoid congestion by controlling and optimising the routing function, or in short, to put the traffic where the capacity is. The main challenge for traffic engineering in ambient networks is to cope with the dynamics of both topology and traffic demands. Mechanisms are needed that can handle traffic load dynamics in scenarios with sudden changes in traffic demand and dynamically distribute traffic to benefit from available resources. Trade-offs between optimality, stability and signaling overhead that are important for traffic engineering methods in the fixed Internet becomes even more critical in a dynamic ambient environment