Simulation Modelling: Non-Recurrent Congestion

Abstract

Due to large mobility demand (road users) and scarce supply of road infrastructure, road users are facing large, undesired, travel time delays, particularly throughout the morning and evening peak-hours. This kind of congestion is referred to in the literature as recurrent congestion, that is, congestion taking place regularly. The impact of traffic information under these conditions was analysed in the previous chapter. However, travel time delays are even larger if additional, random incidents occur on the roads, thereby diminishing the available road capacity during a certain period of time. Congestion of this type is referred to as non-recurrent congestion and is caused by bad weather (fog, heavy rain, snow etc.), traffic accidents, lost cargo, sudden lane closures etc. In the literature, it has been claimed that non-recurrent congestion accounts for up to 60 per cent of total congestion delays (Lindley, 1986, 1987, 1989). Consequently, it is more realistic to assume that the capacity of a transport network is stochastic rather than deterministic, see also Chapter 4.

This chapter is based on Emmerink, Axhausen, Nijkamp and Rietveld (1995b) published in Transportation Research C.