Establishment of Influence Area using Select Link Analysis for Highway Investment Projects

Abstract

Influence area means the spatial range that the change of traffic flow pattern is remarkable after the construction of highway facilities. The influence area would be a significant criterion for economic analysis because it has an effect on the benefit estimation. However existing methods for establishing influence area (such as the O/D method, the method using variation of traffic volume and the method using variation rate of traffic volume) have no standard criteria. In this paper, problems which existing methods have are analyzed and a new method using select link analysis is proposed. Influence area could be established as the set of zones having 70 percentile cumulative trips out of OD pairs using selected link. In addition, the value of standard criteria for establishing influence area is suggested and it is validated via case study.