Citation

Gressai M, Varga B, Tettamanti T, Varga I. Commun. Transp. Res. 2021; 1: e100018.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, The author(s) or State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy (Tsinghua University), Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.commtr.2021.100018

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Road traffic congestion has become an everyday phenomenon in today's cities all around the world. The reason is clear: at peak hours, the road network operates at full capacity. In this way, growing traffic demand cannot be satisfied, not even with traffic-responsive signal plans. The external impacts of traffic congestion come with a serious socio-economic cost: air pollution, increased travel times and fuel consumption, stress, as well as higher risk of accidents. To tackle these problems, a number of European cities have implemented reduced speed limit measures. Similarly, a general urban speed limit measure is in preparatory phase in Budapest, Hungary. In this context, a complex preliminary impact assessment is needed using a simulated environment. Two typical network parts of Budapest were analyzed with microscopic traffic simulations. The results revealed that speed limits can affect traffic differently in diverse network types indicating that thorough examination and preparation works are needed prior to the introduction of speed limit reduction.

Language: en

Keywords

Emission; Microscopic traffic simulation; Speed limit reduction; Traffic analysis