Expressway Usage Pattern Analysis Based on Tollgate Data: A Case Study of the Shandong Province, China

Expressway transportation is an essential part of regional development. An efficient expressway system can enhance cities' connectivity and coordinate long-distance trips between urban areas. Understanding how travel demand affects the flow of expressways is crucial to designing an efficient expressway management system. However, congested expressways are substantial obstacles to unimpeded expressway travel. Here, we explore the relationship between demand origin locations and congested expressways. We extract the time-varying OD demand matrix from empirical tollgate data collected in Shandong province, China. The incremental traffic assignment method is introduced to obtain the traffic flow of expressway road segments. It was found that congested expressways were generated due to only a few origin locations. In addition, expressway congestion during peak hours could be effectively alleviated by controlling the travel demand of these origin locations. Therefore, the proposed method can provide a novel perspective for expressway management.