| Description |
Vehicular traffic to the resorts in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah during the winter season can be heavy on weekends and mornings just after or during a storm event as fresh snow attracts a large skier population. Traffic congestion can occur given that the canyon road is one lane in each direction, which can have a considerable impact on travel time and associated delays. Despite this condition, no known studies have been conducted to examine relationships between traffic congestion and external environmental factors such as snowstorm depth, time since the previous storm, and time of the winter season. The goal of this research is to articulate some of these relationships using Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah as a case study. Daily traffic patterns provided by the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) are compared to each other in order to identify similarities among them. Characteristics of similar daily traffic patterns such as day of week, base depth, days since prior storm event, and storm depth are explored for potential relationships and to identify common variables between days with like vehicle counts. Daily traffic flows are then analyzed using a bootstrapping method to test the research hypothesis that morning traffic to resorts in Big Cottonwood Canyon significantly increases after a snow event. |
