AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.12.2004, Page 36

A new link in the road
network of the Capital Area
Ólafur Daníelsson, MS Engineering Student / Þorsteinn Þorsteinsson, Civil Engineer
During the last forty years a so-
called traffic model has existed for
the Capital Area. This traffic model
has been used to predict traffic vol-
umes on the road network of this
area, depending on the use of land,
and the intensity of landuse. In this
way the traffic model has been used
to estimate future traffic volumes
depending on planned future lan-
duse and how this future traffic will
use the existing and planned road
network.
What is a traffic model?
The traffic model is a method of
predicting traffic volumes on roads
and streets in a given district. This
district is divided into a number of
similar areas and so-called planning
numbers calculated for each area.
The number of areas varies and
depends on the size of the district
among other factors. In the Capital
Area there are there are now 236
areas but were 136 twenty years
ago. Planning numbers refer to
landuse, housing, industry, shop-
ping, service, measured in number
of people or square metres of lan-
duse in each traffic area. Each area
attracts or originates so much traffic
which is distributed on the roads
and streets of the district. The total
traffic is distributed on the road
network depending on travel habits,
such as at what time the trips are
made. Then various other factors of
the traffic can be predicted like aver-
age speed of vehicles, total driven
distance, exhaust gases and so on.
Sýnd er möguleg lega jarðgangna, sem tengir Vatnsmýrina
við Vífilsstaðaveg í Garðabæ. Grunnur myndarinnar er
tekinn úr riti samgönguráðuneytisins frá 2001, Tillaga
stýrihóps að samgönguáætlun 2003-2014. / The pict-
ure shows a possible location of a tunnel connecting
Vatnsmýri in Reykjavik with Vifilstaðavegur Road in
Garðabær, shown on a drawing in a “Stearing Group
Proposal for a Comprehensive Transportation Plan, 2003-
2014“ published 2001 by the Ministry of Transportation.