The usage of network analyses in the design of detours of mass events on the example of the Orlen Warsaw Marathon

Abstract

Every large run, a marathon or a march along the city streets, causes difficulties in the road traffic, and sometimes leads to total paralysis of the city. The significance of this topic has increased in recent years due to the number and scale of such events, which result from the increasing physical activity of Poles, and hence - the increased number of participants of such events. Therefore, it is important to conduct effective actions to minimize the problem of arising difficulties, including the usage of network analysis methods for the design of detours. The example of the usage of such analyses for designing detours presented in this paper concerns the part of the route (within the Warsaw-Ursynów district) of the Orlen Warsaw Marathon 2017. The paper presents the general characteristics of this type of events, formal requirements and accompanying communication issues. It also outlines the main purpose and assumptions of the proposed solution for determining the detour routes, the stage of data preparation and the construction of a network data set (a network model). Based on tools available in ArcGIS Network Analyst, a network analysis model was created that allowed detour routes to be generated for vehicles before, during and immediately after the marathon. The result is also an application that, based on this model, allows to dynamically generate a detour route from the selected point A to B in the district of Ursynów during the Orlen Warsaw Marathon 2017. The results of analyses may provide a basis for further research related to planning of detour routes during similar mass events, and may be also implemented in cloud solutions such as ArcGIS Online. The scope of operations of the created application can be simply expanded after introducing additional network data for other areas as well.

Received 7.05.2018 Accepted 27.07.2018 Published 15.11.2018