Employing Big Data Analytics to Monitor Transportation Impacts in El Paso during Pope's Visit to the City of Juarez

The papal visit to Juarez on February 17, 2016, was a rare international event on the U.S.-Mexico border that provided a unique opportunity for understanding the multimodal impacts on transportation systems and traffic interaction with planned road closures within the cities of El Paso and Juarez. An influx of visitors to El Paso to see the pope in Juarez and El Paso was expected. However, prior to the event, the number of pedestrians and vehicles -- and their impact -- was unknown. Researchers sought to study the effect of the papal visit on the regional transportation systems by first setting up an elaborate data collection system that involved collaboration with INRIX, a provider of historical and real-time traffic information. They set up video cameras at multiple land ports of entry and other locations to understand the traffic impact.They developed an automated tool that captured screenshots at multiple resolutions at regular 5-minute intervals throughout the day of the visit. Using various performance measures, researchers then compared the traffic patterns on the day of the papal visit with those on average weekdays and weekends on major corridors in El Paso. Contrary to expected reduced traffic mobility due to congestion, most areas actually experienced free-flow or manageable conditions; travel time reliability increased. While some locations had a dramatic increase in both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, border crossings did not have major security or congestion issues, including processing times at border crossings in terms of traffic queues. Researchers found that attendees relied heavily on foot and transit modes rather than driving personal vehicles when traveling to see the pontiff. It also seemed that proactive measures and earlier coordination among all agencies led to seamless traffic and travel conditions. This study recommends a demand responsive incremental approach for implementing countermeasures and staffing to the agencies during a special event. The novelty of this work is multifaceted; since it was a rare opportunity to study a mega event on a congested border crossing in the United States, researchers used bog data analytics for understanding performance of major corridors, and advanced pedestrian counters to obtain a complete picture of the impact of the papal visit on El Paso's transportation system.