Work Journey Rescheduling: Results and Conclusions.

An assessment was made of the effects of changes in working hours on traffic conditions in the city centre of Wakefield. The study used survey data arid modelling techniques which are described fully elsewhere, and summarised in section 2 of this report. This report concentrates on the results of the study and the conclusions to be drawn from them.

Assessments were made of traffic conditions had the current level of flexible and staggered hours operation not been introduced, and as the result of four different levels of increased rescheduling of work journeys. In all cases, results were presented in terms of changes in the temporal distribution of trip ends, cordon flows, and the network parameters of vehicle hours, vehicle kilometres, average speed and vehicle delay. In the peak 15 minutes car driver trip ends would have been 15% higher without current work hour arrangements, and 11% lower with further rescheduling. Changes in car driver trips entering the central area would have been about half as great as these changes in trip ends. Because the network is not operating at capacity, these changes would have had little effect on network performance generally, but time spent in queues, and delays on two congested approaches would have changed in the peak 15 minutes by + 20%.

The report discusses the reasons for these relatively small changes and suggests criteria for identifying those cities in which work journey rescheduling could more successfully reduce congestion. It also recommends potential improvements in the analytical process adopted.