Spatial Models of Morning Commute Consistent with Realistic Traffic Behavior

Spatial Models of Morning Commute Consistent with Realistic Traffic Behavior by Alejandro Lago Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering — Civil and Environmental Engineering University of California, Berkeley Carlos F. Daganzo, Chair Urban planners are increasingly concerned about the sprawling suburban development in metropolitan areas around the world, which they often blame for growing traffic congestion and excessive highway investment needs. This dissertation seeks to shed light on this issue by studying the relationship between morning commute congestion and urban form. The causes and consequences of traffic congestion have been extensively studied in the economics and engineering literatures. Unfortunately, most conclusions have been drawn from very idealized models, which either fail to consider adequately the spatial nature of congestion, by neglecting the effects of physical queues and merging interactions, or overlook dynamic aspects, such as commuters’ departure time adaptation during the rush-hour. To better capture the spatial-dynamic nature of morning commute traffic, this dissertation proposes a new analytical framework that explicitly incorporates spatially distributed commuter origins, realistic traffic behavior and commuter timing