The National Park Service (NPS) is currently contemplating the implementation of a
system-wide traffic monitoring program. While several of the national parks within this
network collect continuous vehicle data at multiple stations within each park, these
programs have not been examined for their efficiency and cost effectiveness. Therefore,
as the NPS looks to expand their count program, this thesis investigates potential
improvements using a sample set of five parks.
To determine whether the national park seasonal and day-of-week traffic patterns exhibit
consistency from one year to the next, the seasonal and day-of-week factors were
compared across all five years. Using the Kruskal-Wallis test, it was determined that the
seasonal and day-of-week factors were not statistically different from 2002 to 2006 for
all five national parks. Therefore, it is recommended that the NPS consider reducing the
amount of data that they collect by using short-duration counts in conjunction with a
modest number of permanent counts. To determine whether data collection efforts can be shared amongst various entities, the
national park traffic counts for 2002 to 2006 were compared to those of nearby state
highway automatic traffic recorder (ATR) locations using correlation analyses. While
the correlation values ranged from “high” to “negligible”, the distance between the park
and ATR location had a direct effect on the magnitude of the value. Therefore, in order
to achieve the greatest probability that the correlation will be “high”, it is suggested that
the NPS share data collection efforts using ATR locations within 20 miles of the park.
To determine which design volume calculation method was most appropriate for the
parks, design volumes were computed using two methods. Using the traditional Kfactor
plot, it was determined that the 30th highest hourly volumes should be used for
urban parks as this is where the “knee” occurs. Although this is not the case for rural
parks, there is no compelling evidence to suggest a more appropriate design hour.
Additionally, the method recommended by AASHTO for recreational roadways resulted
in volumes that were frequently exceeded. Therefore, the K-factor plot method is most
appropriate for both the urban and rural parks.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2691 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Liggett, Lindsay Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Burris, Mark |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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