Evaluation of Shopping Mall Implementation Impact on Safety Aspect of the Transport Network Based on Simulation: Case-Study of Riga

Abstract

Implementation of new urban attraction point usually leads to the changes in the surrounding transport infrastructure, which could impact on the performance of the transport network, impact on environment quality etc. Mentioned aspects could be evaluated using microscopic traffic flow simulation tools, which could provide a set of measures to perform the evaluation of the impact. Usually, the impact on safety aspects in a transport network is not evaluated, as it is not requested by the local municipality rules (at least in Latvia). But at the same time, it is an important issue, which has a direct impact on the transport network reliability and safety of drivers and pedestrians. The current paper aim is to demonstrate the case-study of microscopic traffic flow simulation model application for evaluating the surrogate safety after introducing the new urban attraction point (shopping mall) and changes in the surrounding transport infrastructure. The paper defines the methodology for evaluating the surrogate safety, based on microscopic traffic flow simulation model and presents the evaluation results of surrogate safety, completed for one of the newly constructed shopping mall in Riga city (Latvia). Based on the obtained data the conclusions about the impact of new urban attraction point are presented.