Mapping the spatial distribution of the effects of urban traffic congestion: methodological exploration using web based services

Paper in proceeding, 2020

Sustainable transport systems are a necessary requirement to achieve efficient economic performance, enhance urban quality of life and diminish environmental costs.
Congestion, a negative externality of mobility, is responsible for urban pollution, inefficiency and has adverse effects over individuals facing this problem. For these reasons, transport and city planning agencies have developed interests in deffining and measuring transportation congestion.
Although, dfferent dffinitions and metrics have been used, congestion measurements are found
aggregated at a city level or for particular road segments. This study proposes a methodology that produces information from a web traffic service to map traffic congestion within an urban
area. The method is simple and generalizable enough to be adopted in different urban areas.
This paper presents the analysis of four European cities (Amsertdam, Glasgow, Goteborg and Lisbon) and show that the conclusions are consistent with the results obtained from internationally recognized organizations such as INRIX and TomTom.