Using Connected Vehicle data to understand rat-running and drivers taking shortcuts through residential areas.
This case study uses Compass Custom Data Services
Rat running is used to describe when drivers use residential streets and routes not designed to handle large traffic volumes because of perceived shorter journey times and fewer delays caused by congestion or signalised intersections. Rat running is generally perceived as a nuisance by local residents.
Ku-Ring-Gai council wanted to understand instances of rat running in the local streets surrounding Clive St and Archbold Rd. They wanted insights regarding:
- Do vehicles use one or more shortcuts when travelling from Clive St to Archbold Rd?
- Which shortcuts are the most used as a percentage of traffic?
- Are there any other shortcuts used in this area?
- What is the time difference between using the shortcut and using the main road?
- What percentage of vehicles are using the shortcut versus using the main road when travelling from Archbold Rd to Clive St and vice versa?
Vehicle-generated Origin-Destination data can help transport professionals understand rat running by providing insight into average travel times for various travel paths, the average speed across different paths, compare differences in times of day (e.g., differences in travel time and driver pathing decisions during AM and PM peaks, school zones, and off-peak), and compare the percentage of vehicles that use each possible rat running route. Based on this information, the council wanted to implement measures to reduce rat running.
Using the O-D data, the Council found that 48.9% of people were using shortcuts in the morning peak across different local roads. A large percentage of traffic that was meant to be using main roads was actually using the residential areas.
The council also found there were significantly more drivers using local roads Monday to Friday compared to weekends.
The data and visualisations compare the percentage of all trips passing through each street to identify how many drivers use the main arterial roads versus the traffic that is shortcutting and when (i.e., comparing AM, PM and non-peak times).
The data gave a clear indication to the Council of what type of schemes they can implement to stop rat runs and where these schemes would be best implemented.