An international team compared traffic in 30 major cities. They focused on road traffic and congestion and used vehicle movement data from Here Technologies with a five-minute time resolution.
To describe cities, the researchers used OpenStreetMap. They collected details about the road network, junctions, green spaces and functions of areas such as housing, shopping, sport and education. The team then compared these features with the congestion data for each city.
The results show that road expansion, city form and how buildings are used affect traffic. The new method can predict traffic changes, but the researchers say more detailed analysis is needed before using it for local planning.
Difficult words
- congestion — a situation with many vehicles and slow movementcongestion data
- junction — a place where roads meet or crossjunctions
- green space — an area with grass, trees, or parksgreen spaces
- predict — to say what will happen in the future
- road network — the system of connected roads in a city
- resolution — the level of detail in time or data
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Which of the mentioned city features (road network, junctions, green spaces) do you think causes traffic in your city?
- Why do you think researchers need more detailed analysis before local planning?
- Would you trust a prediction about traffic changes from this method? Why or why not?
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