Sapporo (population 1.84 million) is in a cold, snowy region. It receivesover 5 m of snowfall annually. No other city in the world with such a large population has such heavy snowfall. In downtown Sapporo, pedestrian andvehicle traffic volumes are very large. In winter, traffic congestion andpedestrian falling accidents frequently result from snowbanks at the roadshoulder and very slippery road surfaces. To alleviate these problems, road heating was installed at the shoulder on three sections of a national highway in downtown Sapporo (total installation extension: 1.5 km.) To evaluate the effect of the road heating on vehicular and pedestrian traffic, traffic indices were compared before and after installation, and conducted a questionnaire survey of road users. It was found that installation caused the travel speed in winter to increase and was well received by the roadusers. For the covering abstract see ITRD E143097.
Samenvatting