Calculating the Contribution Rate of Intelligent Transportation System in Improving Urban Traffic Smooth Based on Advanced DID Model

Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of intelligent transportation system around the world, which helps to relieve urban traffic congestion problems. For instance, many mega-cities in China have devoted a large amount of money and resources to the development of intelligent transportation system. This poses an intriguing and important issue: how to measure and quantify the contribution of intelligent transportation system to the urban city, which is still a puzzle. This paper proposes a matching difference-in-difference model to calculate the contribution rate of intelligent transportation system on traffic smoothness. Within the model, the main effect indicators of traffic smoothness are first identified, and then the evaluation index system is built, and finally the ideas of the matching pool are introduced. The proposed model is illustrated in Guangzhou, China (capital city of Guangdong province). The results show that introduction of ITS contributes 9.25% to the improvement of traffic smooth in Guangzhou. Also, the research explains the working mechanism of how ITS improves urban traffic smooth. Eventually, some strategy recommendations are put forward to improve urban traffic smooth.