GPS-Based Study on an Interurban Road Connection

The paper presents an extensive theoretical background related to the travel time and the studies that were conducted during the recent years on the subject. As a concept, travel time is related to the period of time spent in travelling between two different points in space. The analysis focuses on several aspects related to the travel time concept such as its usefulness, its influencing factors, and data collection methods for its determination. In order to also provide a practical outcome, the main interurban road connection between Cluj-Napoca and Tîrgu-Mureş was studied. The road trespasses both urban and rural localities in the North-Western of Romania. For the data collection process, a GPS-based equipment was placed on a test vehicle to run the route for multiple times, at different days and hours. The collected data were studied by means of statistical analysis in order to establish the most relevant aspects of the travel time. The research goal of the paper was to evaluate the influence exerted by demographics and type of locality on travel time by means of eventual delays. The main findings were employed to analyze the traffic conditions as well as the parameters that have a major impact on them. According to the results of the analysis, the traffic flow on the interurban route is best described by the travel time and consequently the delays registered due to multiple obstructive elements such as railway level crossings, pedestrian crossings within the localities, and level intersections between different roads category. However, according to the study, it can also be concluded that travel time and therefore the eventual delays are not influenced to a great extent by neither the type of transited localities - urban or rural, nor the demographics.