A Spatiotemporal Hierarchical Analysis Method for Urban Traffic Congestion Optimization Based on Calculation of Road Carrying Capacity in Spatial Grids

Traffic congestion is a globally widespread problem that causes significant economic losses, delays, and environmental impacts. Monitoring traffic conditions and analyzing congestion factors are the first, challenging steps in optimizing traffic congestion, one of the main causes of which is regional spatiotemporal imbalance. In this article, we propose an improved spatiotemporal hierarchical analysis method whose steps include calculating road carrying capacity based on geospatial data, extracting vehicle information from remote sensing images to reflect instantaneous traffic demand, and analyzing the spatiotemporal matching degree between roads and vehicles in theory and in practice. First, we defined and calculated the ratio of carrying capacity in a regional road network using a nine-cell-grid model composed of nested grids of different sizes. By the conservation law of flow, we determined unbalanced areas in the road network configuration using the ratio of the carrying capacity of the central cell to that of the nine grid cells. Then, we designed a spatiotemporal analysis method for traffic congestion using real-time traffic data as the dependent variables and five selected spatial indicators relative to the spatial grids as the independent variables. The proposed spatiotemporal analysis method was applied to Chengdu, a typical provincial capital city in China. The relationships among regional traffic, impact factors, and spatial heterogeneity were analyzed. The proposed method effectively integrates GIS, remote sensing, and deep learning technologies. It was further demonstrated that our method is reliable and effective and enhances the coordination of congested areas by virtue of a fast calculation speed and an efficient local balance adjustment.