A Study on Highway Capacity Variation According to Snowfall Intensity

Under the consumption of bad weather situation affects traffic flows, the study scope is focused on highway capacity and speed variations among other highway traffic flow characteristic changes according to snowfall density. Thus, this study carried out through the data collection and statistical analysis by focusing on capacity and speed changes. Traffic volume, speed and density were selected as factors to explain the property change of a traffic flow for analysis, and 7 basic sections such as 3 highways in Gyeonggi-do and 4 highways near the meteorological observatory were selected as survey points for data collection. Snowfall levels were classified into 3 steps(Light, Medium, Heavy Snow) to analyze the capacity change by snowfall levels. As a result of analysis, the change of capacity depending on snowfall levels decreased 13.2 % in case of light snow compared to a good weather, 18.6 % in case of medium snow and 32.0 % in case of heavy snow, so the capacity reduction rate increased as the snowfall level increased. The worsening weather appeared to have a very big possibility to act as a factor to reduce the operational efficiency of a road, so a road design and operation method considering thi