Understanding Factors Affecting Arterial Reliability Performance Metrics

In recent years, the importance of travel time reliability has become equally important as average travel time. However, the majority focus of travel time research is average travel time or travel time reliability on freeways. In addition, the identification of specific factors (i.e., peak hours, nighttime hours, etc.) and their effects on average travel time and travel time variability are often unknown. The current study addresses these two issues through a travel time-based study on urban arterials. Using travel times collected via Bluetooth data, a series of analyses are conducted to understand factors affecting reliability metrics on urban arterials. Analyses include outlier detection, a detailed descriptive analysis of select corridors, median travel time analysis, assessment of travel time reliability metrics recommended by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and a bivariate Tobit model. Results show that day of the week, time of day, and holidays have varying effects on average travel time, travel time reliability, and travel time variability. Results also show that evening peak hours have the greatest effects in regards to increasing travel time, nighttime hours have the greatest effects in regards to decreasing travel time, and directionality plays a vital role in all travel time-related metrics