In the course of this dissertation, a model is developed that allows for the quantification of the economic effects of measures to prevent traffic congestion related to short-term highway work sites (on both sides) as well as determine their efficiency. Starting from the causal relationship between the construction of short-term work sites and their impact on traffic flow, it is shown that changes in the input parameters, for example through changes in the entrance sizes, will lead to changes in the traffic and economic consequences of the work sites. These effects can be scaled in terms of their costs, so that one can observe the causal relationship between the monetary values of these effects. This enables an examination of the economic efficiency ratios using an input-output-related efficiency criterion based on a without-reduction scheme and with reduction scheme comparison of effects. In addition, the requirements for the development of measures to reduce traffic congestion will be shown as well as possible solutions of this issue. These approaches will be illustrated by means of some concrete examples. Based on the operational and traffic-related results acquired from the in-situ and simulation experiments, the mode of action and significant ancillary conditions are discussed. The resuits of this examination are summarized as advice to the user of specific prevention schemes. Labor law and safety aspects (traffic safety, occupational safety) are included in the discussion as essential preconditions for the development of preventative measures. A five step model based on the illustrated basic principles and causal relationships is introduced to formalize the evaluation of schemes to reduce traffic congestion. This model works on the basis of an efficiency comparison between developing short-term work sites with or without a specific congestion reduction scheme. The main parameters for this approach are the "output-value, defined as "the amount of a certain activity done in a specific time interval" and "input-value-defined as "the sum of the expenses of road maintenance and congestion costs". By using the approach developed this way, it is possible to decide on the absolute advantage of a scheme (did or did not achieve the goal) as well as the relative advantage of a scheme compared with one or several schemes. This allows one to decide between alternative schemes or to get an objective ranking of different schemes according to their performance. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting