The impact of fallen roadside trees on urban road traffic delay

WANG Yuhang; ZHENG Yifeng; LIN Ruirui; YUE Xiaoquan; ZHANG Kexin

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1672-0032.2024.03.002

Abstract：In order to study the impact of fallen roadside trees on the operational status of urban road traffic,using software VISSIM to simulate the traffic condition at multiple intersections in Fuzhou City after the roadside trees fell,and using software MATLAB to input traffic volume into the simulation file to calculate traffic delays.The effects of the length and width of fallen roadside trees,and traffic volume on traffic delays are fitted and analyzed using software EViews.The results show that the length and width of fallen roadside trees and traffic volume have a significant impact on traffic delays of three-lane and four-lane roads,but have a lesser impact on five-lane roads traffic delays;Traffic delays increase with the length and width of fallen roadside trees and traffic volume,with the impact on traffic delays ranked in descending order as follows:length of fallen trees,width of fallen trees,and traffic volume.For a three-lane road,when the length of the fallen roadside trees is 5 or 6 m,traffic delays are more sensitive to changes in traffic volume.When the lengths and widths of fallen roadside trees are either small or large,the impact of traffic volume changes on traffic delays is minimal.Under different widths of fallen roadside trees,traffic delays significantly increase when the length of fallen trees is greater than 6 m.After the traffic volume exceeds 1 500 vehicles per hour,the fitting goodness of fallen tree length,width,and traffic delays tends to stabilize.At a traffic volume of 1 800 vehicles per hour,the goodness of fit is 0.982 2,and the greater the traffic volume,the better the fit between the length and width of fallen roadside trees and traffic delays.