A bifurcation of the peak: New patterns of traffic peaking during the COVID-19 era

Recently published:

• Gao, Yang and Levinson, D. (2022) A bifurcation of the peak: New patterns of traffic peaking during the COVID-19 era. Transportation. [doi]

This paper analyzes the emergence of two well-defined peaks during the morning peak period in the traffic flow diurnal curve. It selects six California cities as research targets, and uses California employment and household travel survey data to explain how and why this phenomenon has risen during the pandemic. The final result explains that the double-humped phenomenon results from the change in the composition of commuters during the morning peak period after the outbreak.

Traffic flow diurnal curve of Los Angeles in 2020