Abstract: Through the investigation of the current situation of urban traffic congestion, the 11 main factors causing urban traffic congestion are summarized from the three aspects, management, facilities and traffic participants. The model of interpretative structure is established, and the hierarchical relationship among factors is analyzed. The MICMAC analysis classifies the influencing factors, further analyzes the influence of each factor on the traffic congestion, finds the surface, middle and bottom influencing factors that cause the urban traffic congestion, and provides the basis for reference to alleviate the urban traffic congestion problem.

Key words: traffic congestion, influencing factors, interpretative structure model, MICMAC analysis