Analysis of Travel Time Reliability in New York City Based on Day-of-Week and Time-of-Day Periods

Abstract

Travel time reliability in New York City was analyzed with three travel time reliability measures. A classification and regression tree model was used for the analysis. Instead of analysis of conventional peak and off-peak periods, day-of-week (DOW) and time-of-day (TOD) periods were determined on the basis of each travel time reliability measure. DOW and TOD periods were identified on the basis of average travel time and each selected measure. Travel time reliability measures formulated to explain the same phenomenon classified different periods as having similar characteristics. The results agreed with the literature that reliability measures should be based on temporal periods such as DOW and TOD; however, the selection of time periods should be measure specific. The impact of New York City's urban grid network on travel time and speed distributions is also discussed. The travel time distribution patterns reported in the literature for freeways do not exist for the city. Therefore, caution is suggested for transferring reliability measures across different network structures.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Lyman

, and Bertini

R.L.

Using Travel Time Reliability Measures to Improve Regional Transportation Planning and Operations. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2046, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2008, pp. 1–10.

Chen

, Skabardonis

, and Varaiya

Travel Time Reliability as a Measure of Service. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1855, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 74–79.

Van der Waard

Role of Reliability in Policy, System Planning and Investment Decisions. International Meeting on Value of Travel Time Reliability and Cost–Benefit Analysis, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2009.

Taylor

Reliability and Cost–Benefit Analysis in Australia and New Zealand. International Meeting on Value of Travel Time Reliability and Cost–Benefit Analysis, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2009.

International Meeting on Value of Travel Time Reliability and Cost–Benefit Analysis. http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/Proceedings/reliability/index.html.

Updating Reliability Research in SHRP 2. Reliability program brief. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2011. http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/shrp2/ReliabilityBrief.pdf.

Transportation Research Centre. Improving Reliability on Surface Transport Networks. Summary document. OECD International Transportation Forum, 2009.

TRB Transportation Economics Committee. Transportation Benefit–Cost Analysis: Travel Time Reliability. http://bca.transportationeconomics.org/benefits/travel-time-reliability. Accessed July 30, 2011.

Hainen

A.M.

, Wasson

J. S.

, Hubbard

S.M.L.

, Remias

S.M.

, and Farnsworth

G.D.

. Estimating Route Choice and Travel Time Reliability with Field Observations of Bluetooth Probe Vehicles. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2256, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2011, pp. 43–50.

10.

National Center for Transit Research. Synthesis of Research on Value of Time and Value of Reliability. Report BD549 46. Florida Department of Transportation, Tallahassee, 2009.

11.

Lomax

, Schrank

, Turner

, and Margiotta

. Selecting Travel Reliability Measures. Report. Texas Transportation Institute and Cambridge Systematics, 2003. http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/474360-1.pdf. Accessed July 30, 2011.

12.

Elefteriadou

, and Cui

Review of Definitions of Travel Time Reliability. Draft report. 2005. http://www.dot.state.fl.us/planning/statistics/mobilitymeasures/define-ttr.pdf. Accessed July 30, 2011.

13.

van Lint

J. W. C.

, and van Zuylen

H. J.

. Monitoring and Predicting Freeway Travel Time Reliability: Using Width and Skew of Day-to-Day Travel Time Distribution. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1917, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2005, pp. 54–62.

14.

van Lint

J. W. C.

, van Zuylen

H. J.

, and Tu

. Travel Time Unreliability on Freeways: Why Measures Based on Variance Tell Only the Half of the Story. Transportation Research Part A, Vol. 42, 2008, pp. 258–277.

15.

Analytic Relationships Between Travel Time Reliability Measures. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2254, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2011, pp. 122–130.

16.

Tilahun

N.Y.

, and Levinson

D.M.

A Moment of Time: Reliability in Route Choice Using Stated Preference. Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2010, pp. 179–187.

17.

Breiman

, Friedman

, Olshen

R. A.

, and Stone

C. J.

Classification and Regression Trees. Chapman & Hall, Boca Raton, Fla., 1984.

18.

MATLAB Help, Version 7.11.0.584 (R2010b). 2010.

19.

Franklin

J.P.

, and Karlstrom

Travel Time Reliability for Stockholm Roadways Modeling Mean Lateness Factor. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2134, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2009, pp. 106–113.