A Data-Driven Functional Classification of Urban Roadways Based on Geometric Design, Traffic Characteristics, and Land Use Features

Abstract

The functional classification system (FCS) of roads means categorizing roads based on their service characteristics. The two primary considerations in classifying highway and street networks are accessibility and mobility, where by increasing the role of one, the other’s role is reduced. In this paper, besides the conventional variables such as geometric design characteristics, parking lots, land use features, and accessibility; the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) data following the real-time traffic flow and average speed of vehicles collected by Location-Based Services (LBS) are considered as new variables for estimating the FCS. Linear regression is used to model the importance of the variables. The chi-square test compared the observational and predicted speeds in the five categories of roads in Tehran, the capital of Iran. Results show that on-street parking has the highest impact and the land use variable has the lowest impact on speed that changes the FCS. Moreover, the presented classification was one to two categories compared with the conventional FCS presented in manuals in the case of Tehran’s transportation network as a developing city.