Hiroshi Warita

Effect of rain on travel demand and traffic accidents

This paper studies the effect of rain on travel demand measured on the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway (MEX). Rainfall data monitored by the Japan Meteorological Agencys meso-scale network of weather stations are used. This study found that travel demand decreases during rainy days and, in particular, larger reductions occur over the weekend. The effect of rainfall on the number of accidents recorded on 10 routes on the MEX is also analysed. Statistical testing shows that the average frequency of accidents, during periods of rainfall, is significantly different from the average frequency at other times.

International Traffic Database: Gathering Traffic Data Fast and Intuitive

Gathering real life data, for whatever type of use, is a time consuming job. A lot of data is measured and stored in several places and different formats around the world. While a lot of it is not used, other institutions gather similar data on different locations or, worse, on the same ones. In this way, a lot of money and time is spent unnecessarily (Miska and Lint 2006). Thus, the aim of the International Traffic Database (ITDb) project is to provide traffic data to various groups (researchers, practitioners, public entities) in a format according to their particular needs, ranging from raw measurement data to statistical analysis.