GIS and GPS to evaluate urban arterial performance

Abstract EN

New performance-based design procedures with the incorporation of operating speeds were proposed utilizing Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies for arterial performance evaluation and congestion quantification at urban areas.

The relevance of geometrical variables and land use to operating speed was also investigated using consistency measure.

The collected variables in the data-base layers of GIS included: traffic volume, pedestrian volume, parking occupancy rate, cross-section characteristics, geometry of road, road environment features and land use for arterials and relevant intersection layers.

The results showed that: 1) Consistency could provide a new performance measure of urban streets utilizing GPS data incorporated with GIS capability; 2) Divided ring road arterials which have more length, more than one lane and are located at residential areas were more consistent with their posted speed limits than the others ; 3) Congestion can be quantified using a new scheme proposed in this research work utilizing GIS and the second-by-second GPS data.