Noblis Fellow Dr. Karl Wunderlich, presented innovative approaches to measuring the performance of complex urban surface transportation systems at the Workshop on Innovations in Congestion Monitoring in Beijing, China on October 28 and 29, 2009. The Beijing Transportation Research Center (BTRC), an advisory unit to the Mayor on transportation issues, brought Dr. Wunderlich and other internationally recognized transportation experts to China to address the increasing problem of Beijing traffic congestion.
Over the last decade, Dr. Wunderlich invented many of the novel approaches currently used to measure transportation systems congestion including the use of trip reliability instead of travel time. Many regional transportation authorities throughout the United States employ his analytic approaches and metrics. Supporting the U.S. Department of Transportation’s ITS Joint Program Office and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), he continues to evaluate the impacts of intelligent transportation system (ITS) deployment and related operational improvements. Dr. Wunderlich previously received the Charles A. Zraket Award for Excellence in Science and Technology for his integration of macroscopic flow-based transportation planning models with simulation-based traffic models.
Increasing urbanization, economic development, and ownership of private vehicles have created escalating traffic congestion on most major Beijing urban highways and streets. The city government is addressing the traffic problems with a systemic approach to examine alternative solutions and strategies using quantitative metrics. Dr. Wunderlich’s presentation, entitled Travel Time Reliability and Other Considerations for Performance Management, addressed the approach to the growing Beijing congestion problems. Workshop attendees included technical experts and government officials from both the U.S. and China.