Estimating Vehicle Miles Traveled on Local Roads

Estimating Vehicle Miles Traveled on Local Roads
Author: Jiayu Qian
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

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This research presents a new method to estimate the local road vehicle miles traveled (VMT) with the concept of betweenness centrality. Betweenness centrality is a measure of a node's or link's centrality on a network that has been applied popularly in social science and we relate it to traffic volumes. We demonstrate that VMT on local roads exhibits a scale-free property: it follows two piecewise (double) power law distributions. In other words, the total local VMT can be obtained by properly connecting the two distributions at a breakpoint, each having a slope of the power law distribution. We show that the breakpoint can be predicted by using certain network topological measures, which indicates that the breakpoint may be an inherent property for a particular network. We also show that the highest betweenness centrality point can be estimated using network measures. Furthermore, we prove that the estimated VMT is not sensitive to the power of the power law distributions. This research highlights a potentially new direction of effort for local road VMT estimation. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/151794

Traffic Volume Trends

Traffic Volume Trends
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 504
Release: 1974
Genre: Traffic surveys
ISBN:

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Estimation and Prediction of Statewide Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) by Highway Category and Vehicle Classification

Estimation and Prediction of Statewide Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) by Highway Category and Vehicle Classification
Author: Trevor Klatko
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2016-12-31
Genre:
ISBN: 9781622604197

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Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) is a critical measure of highway system performance used extensively in highway transportation management not only for reporting to oversight agencies such as the FHWA but also as an input for financial analysis, resource allocation, and impact assessments. In the current era as highway revenue from fuel taxes continues to fall and direct user charging such as VMT fees become increasingly attractive, consistent and reliable VMT estimates have become critical for evaluating highway funding options. In the current practice at most highway agencies including the Indiana DOT, there exists several alternative methods for VMT estimation that typically yield a spectrum of estimates that are inconsistent and for certain methods, even inaccurate. This study was commissioned by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to develop a benchmark method for VMT estimation and to provide calibration factors for adjusting the VMT estimates derived from the other VMT estimation methods. The benchmark method used in this study was a segment-level framework that decomposes the entire road inventory into links and for each link, determining the product of the traffic volume and the inventory length. For the state highway system, the entire population was used; a comprehensive database was developed which facilitates extensive aggregations of VMT by geographical scope, route, functional class, and vehicle class. For the local roads, a sample of counties of different spatial locations and degrees of urbanization were used, and cluster analysis, geographic information systems (GIS), and spatial interpolation techniques were used to expand the VMT estimates from the local road samples to the population of all counties in the state. The results of this study indicate that there is significant variation, with respect to the benchmark method, of the VMT estimates of the other estimation methods. An implementation platform was developed in this study to produce outcomes that address the VMT data needs of the intended end users and stakeholders; this can be expanded to include new roads in future. It was determined that the current statewide VMT (2013) is 78 billion vehicle-miles, which is expected to grow to 95 billion vehicle miles in 2035.

Public Roads

Public Roads
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 40
Release: 1972
Genre: Highway research
ISBN:

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