The association of rainfall and other weather variables with road traffic volume in Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

An investigation into the effect of weather variables on traffic flow at a site in Melbourne, Australia, for the period 1989-1996 was performed. Rainfall was the strongest correlated weather parameter and it had the greatest impact in winter and spring, when traffic volume is reduced on wet days. There are statistically significant decreases of 1.35 and 2.11% in traffic volume on wet days in winter and spring. The reduction increases to 2-3% over the 2-10mm range, the largest being 3.43% for the 2-5mm class in spring. For the first time, our study considers separately daytime and nighttime periods. We found a reduction of 1.86% in winter and 2.16% in spring during daytime rainfall. The reduc..