Travelers’ Adaptive Behaviors in Response to Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement

The Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle, an elevated freeway, was replaced with the new SR 99 Tunnel in 2019. The project involved a sequence of events, including the closure of the viaduct for demolition, reopening (without tolling) and followed by tolling of the new tunnel that was built to replace the demolished viaduct. This study examines travelers’ adaptive behavior in response to these events. The authors used both big data (i.e., app-based data) and flow data (traffic volumes and travel times) to conduct before/after analyses and comparisons, and presented the data processing and analysis methods. Impacts of these events are analyzed in terms of changes in travelers’ mobility patterns and system performance at three scales: facility users, the immediate neighborhoods near the project site, and the entire Puget Sound region. Results show that the impacts are more significant on facility users who use the viaduct or tunnel regularly than those who live in neighborhoods nearby the facility; there is almost no impact at the regional scale. Meanwhile, the viaduct closure seems to have less significant impacts than the tunnel tolling, suggesting that the information dissemination and guidance provided by transportation agencies regarding the viaduct closure may have helped reduce the potentially larger impacts. The analysis method and results presented here also indicate that big data fused with traditional flow data can be useful for analyzing the impacts of major infrastructure changes, if properly conducted.

• Record URL:
  https://annualmeeting.mytrb.org/OnlineProgram/Details/15465
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AED20 Standing Committee on Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Wang, Feilong
  • Wang, Jingxing
  • Zhang, Yiran
  • Chen, Cynthia
  • Ban, Xuegang (Jeff)
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
• Date: 2021

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Case studies; Data files; Detours; Road construction; Tolls; Travel behavior; Travel patterns; Travelers; Vehicular tunnels; Viaducts
• Identifier Terms: Alaskan Way Viaduct
• Geographic Terms: Puget Sound Region
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Construction; Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01764255
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: TRBAM-21-03332
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 4 2021 11:00AM