Engineering Solutions to Enhance Traffic Safety Performance on Two-Lane Highways

Improving two-lane highway traffic safety conditions is of practical importance to the traffic system, which has attracted significant research attention within the last decade. Many cost-effective and proactive solutions such as low-cost treatments and roadway safety monitoring programs have been developed to enhance traffic safety performance under prevailing conditions. This study presents research perspectives achieved from the Highway Safety Enhancement Project (HSEP) that assessed safety performance on two-lane highways in Beijing, China. Potential causal factors are identified based on proposed evaluation criteria, and primary countermeasures are developed against inferior driving conditions such as sharp curves, heavy gradients, continuous downgrades, poor sight distance, and poor clear zones. Six cost-effective engineering solutions were specifically implemented to improve two-lane highway safety conditions, including (1) traffic sign replacement, (2) repainting pavement markings, (3) roadside barrier installation, (4) intersection channelization, (5) drainage optimization, and (6) sight distance improvement. The effectiveness of these solutions was examined and evaluated based on Empirical Bayes (EB) models. The results indicate that the proposed engineering solutions effectively improved traffic safety performance by significantly reducing crash occurrence risks and crash severities.

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Formulating alcohol-influenced driver’s injury severities in intersection-related crashes

Transport ◽

10.3846/16484142.2016.1144221 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 165-176 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Qiong Wu ◽

Guohui Zhang

Keyword(s):

New Mexico ◽

Traffic Safety ◽

Practical Importance ◽

Safety Performance ◽

Highway Traffic ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

Severe Injuries ◽

National Highway Traffic Safety ◽

Causal Factors ◽

Injury Severities

Approximately one third of all traffic fatal crashes are alcohol-related in the US according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), alcohol-related crashes cost more than $37 billion annually. Considerable research efforts are needed to understand better significant causal factors for alcohol-related crash risks and driver’s injury severities in order to develop effective countermeasures and proper policies for system-wide traffic safety performance improvements. Furthermore, since two thirds of urban Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) is on signal-controlled roadways, it is of practical importance to investigate injury severities of all drivers who are involved in intersection-related crashes and their corresponding significant causal factors due to control and geometric impacts on flow progression interruptions. This study aims to identify and quantify the impacts of alcohol/non-alcohol-influenced driver’s behavior and demographic features as well as geometric and environmental characteristics on driver’s injury severities around intersections in New Mexico. The econometric models, multinomial Logit models, were developed to analyze injury severities for regular sober drivers and alcohol-influenced drivers, respectively, using the crash data collected in New Mexico from 2010 to 2011. Elasticity analyzes were conducted in order to understand better the quantitative impacts of these contributing factors on driver’s injury outcomes. The research findings provide a better understanding of contributing factors and their impacts on driver injury severities in crashes around intersections. For example, the probability of having severe injuries is higher for non-alcohol-influenced drivers when the drivers are 65 years old or older. Drivers’ left-turning action will increase non-alcohol-influenced driver injury severities in crash occurring around intersections. However, different characteristics are captured for alcohol-influenced drivers involved in intersection-related crashes. For example, more severe injuries of alcohol-influenced drivers can be observed around intersections with three or more lanes on each approach. The model specifications and estimation results are also helpful for transportation agencies and decision makers to develop cost-effective solutions to reduce alcohol-involved crash severities and improve traffic system safety performance.

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Before-and-After Empirical Bayes Evaluation of Citywide Installation of Driver Feedback Signs

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.1177/0361198120912243 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2674 (4) ◽

pp. 419-427

Author(s):

Mingjian Wu ◽

Karim El-Basyouny ◽

Tae J. Kwon

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Spatial Data ◽

Empirical Bayes ◽

Large Scale ◽

Low Cost ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Before And After ◽

Feedback Sign ◽

Driver Feedback ◽

Road Segments

Speeding is a leading factor that contributes to approximately one-third of all fatal collisions. Over the past decades, various passive/active countermeasures have been adopted to improve drivers’ compliance to posted speed limits to improve traffic safety. The driver feedback sign (DFS) is considered a low-cost innovative intervention that is being widely used, in growing numbers, in urban cities to provide positive guidance for motorists. Despite their documented effectiveness in reducing speeds, limited literature exists on their impact on reducing collisions. This study addresses this gap by designing a before-and-after study using the empirical Bayes method for a large sample of urban road segments. Safety performance functions and yearly calibration factors are developed to quantify the sole effectiveness of DFS using large-scale spatial data and a set of reference road segments within the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Likewise, the study followed a detailed economic analysis based on three collision-costing criteria to investigate if DFS was indeed a cost-effective intervention. The results showed significant collision reductions that ranged from 32.5% to 44.9%, with the highest reductions observed for severe speed-related collisions. The results further attested that the benefit–cost ratios, combining severe and property-damage-only collisions, ranged from 8.2 to 20.2 indicating that DFS can be an extremely economical countermeasure. The findings from this study can provide transportation agencies in need of implementing cost-efficient countermeasures with a tool they need to design a long-term strategic deployment plan to ensure the safety of traveling public.

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Vehicle Consumer Complaint Reports Involving Severe Incidents: Mining Large Contingency Tables

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.1177/0361198118788464 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2672 (32) ◽

pp. 72-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Subasish Das ◽

Abhisek Mudgal ◽

Anandi Dutta ◽

Srinivas R. Geedipally

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Empirical Bayes ◽

Highway Traffic ◽

Vehicle Model ◽

National Highway Traffic Safety ◽

Manufacturing Defects ◽

Consumer Complaints ◽

Defect Groups ◽

Vehicle Technologies ◽

Major Defect

According to 2010–2014 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data, nearly 6.35% of fatal crashes happened as a result of vehicles’ pre-existing manufacturing defects. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) vehicle complaint database incorporates more than 1.37 million complaint reports (as of June 1, 2017). These reports contain extended information on vehicle-related disruptions. Around 5% of these reports involve some level of injury or fatalities. This study had two principal objectives, namely (1) perform knowledge discovery to understand the latent trends in consumer complaints, and (2) identify clusters with high relative reporting ratios from a large contingency table of vehicle models and associated complaints. To accomplish these objectives, 67,201 detailed reports associated with injury or fatalities from the NHTSA vehicle complaint database were examined. Exploratory text mining and empirical Bayes (EB) data mining were performed. Additionally, this study analyzed five years (2010–2014) of FARS data to examine the research findings. Results show that major vehicular defects are associated with air bags, brake systems, seat belts, and speed controls. The EB metrics identified several key ‘ vehicle model with major defect’ groups that require more attention. This study demonstrates the applicability of consumer complaints in identifying major vehicular defects as well as key groups of ‘ vehicle model with major defect.’ The findings of this study will provide a significant contribution to the reduction of crashes from vehicle-related disruptions. The research presented in this paper is crucial given the ongoing advancement of connected and automated vehicle technologies.

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Independent electrical power supply of river bridges and objects adjacent to them

Proceedings of Petersburg Transport University ◽

10.20295/1815-588x-2018-4-545-550 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 545-550

Author(s):

Konstantin Kim ◽

Mikhail Gerasimov ◽

Aleksandr Smirnov

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Power Supply ◽

Electrical Power ◽

Practical Importance ◽

Electric Energy ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Electric Transport ◽

Hydroelectric Power ◽

Power Stations ◽

Traction Network

Objective: To improve trafﬁc safety, reduce the environmental impact and to save electricity by using the energy of river ﬂows to supply river bridges with power. Methods: A renewable and quite cost- effective source of electric energy can be obtained by using small hydroelectric power stations (GES). A project on installation of small submersible GES on the bridge footings over the Neva River in Saint Petersburg is described in the given article. Results: The powers of hydraulic turbines for each bridge were calculated based on their energy consumption and the number of possible turbine installation places. Practical importance: It is supposed to give generated electric power to the traction network of electric transport or to accumulate it in storages providing power supply of a nearby infrastructure at any time. In addition, strengthening of the present distribution network within the city by means of the additional sources of electricity will be provided.

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On the Application of Ant Colony Neural Network for the Highway Traffic Safety Facilities System

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.989-994.2675 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 989-994 ◽

pp. 2675-2678

Author(s):

Guo Ling Jia ◽

Rong Guo Ma ◽

Ya Juan Deng

Keyword(s):

Neural Network ◽

Traffic Safety ◽

Evaluation Model ◽

Influence Factors ◽

Highway Safety ◽

Ant Colony ◽

Evaluation Index System ◽

System Evaluation ◽

Highway Traffic ◽

Freeway Traffic

Highway traffic safety facilities system evaluation plays an important role to relieve highway safety problem. From the perspective of system engineering, the influence factors of the current situation are comprehensively considered, the freeway traffic safety facilities system evaluation index system is established, and the application of ant colony neural network evaluation model is constructed. The purpose is to provide the beneficial references for freeway traffic safety facilities system evaluation.

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Evaluating Highway Traffic Safety: An Integrated Approach

Journal of Advanced Transportation ◽

10.1155/2018/4598985 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Yanqun Yang ◽

Said M. Easa ◽

Zhibin Lin ◽

Xinyi Zheng

Keyword(s):

Statistical Analysis ◽

Traffic Safety ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Analytic Network Process ◽

Highway Safety ◽

Highway Traffic ◽

Safety Level ◽

Expert Opinions ◽

Network Process ◽

Using Data

This paper presents a novel methodology for determining the overall highway safety level by integrating statistical analysis and analytic network process (ANP) with set pair analysis (SPA) which is applied in the evaluation of the overall highway safety for the first time. The methodology accounts for both quantitative and qualitative factors that contribute to traffic safety. The statistical analysis uses crash, alignment, intersection, and other data to determine the significant indices (variables) that affect safety. These indices are then combined with the planning (qualitative) indices to determine the weights of all indices based on expert opinions using ANP. Finally, the overall safety level of the highway is determined using SPA. The methodology is illustrated using data collected from two highways in China. The results demonstrate that the proposed methodology is sound and reliable. The methodology is applicable to existing or new highways and can help to effectively evaluate the overall safety of a highway and develop long-term strategies for safety improvements.

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Models of human decision-making as tools for estimating and optimising impacts of vehicle automation

10.31234/osf.io/mgphw ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Gustav Markkula ◽

Richard Romano ◽

Ruth Madigan ◽

Charles W. Fox ◽

Oscar Terence Giles ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Traffic Safety ◽

Situational Awareness ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Human Behaviour ◽

Perceptual Decision Making ◽

Interface Elements ◽

Research Attention ◽

Virtual Testing ◽

Vehicle Automation

With the development of increasingly automated vehicles (AVs) comes the increasingly difficult challenge of comprehensively validating these for acceptable, and ideally beneficial, impacts on the transport system. There is a growing consensus that virtual testing, where simulated AVs are deployed in simulated traffic, will be key for cost-effective testing and optimisation. The least mature model components in such simulations are those generating the behaviour of human agents in or around the AVs. In this paper, human models and virtual testing applications are presented for two example scenarios: (i) a human pedestrian deciding whether to cross a street in front of an approaching automated vehicle, with or without external human-machine interface elements, and (ii) an AV handing over control to a human driver in a critical rear-end situation. These scenarios have received much recent research attention, yet simulation-ready human behaviour models are lacking. They are discussed here in the context of existing models of perceptual decision-making, situational awareness, and traffic interactions. It is argued that the human behaviour in question might be usefully conceptualised as a number of interrelated decision processes, not all of which are necessarily directly associated with externally observable behaviour. The results show that models based on this type of framework can reproduce qualitative patterns of behaviour reported in the literature for the two addressed scenarios, and it is demonstrated how computer simulations based on the models, once these have been properly validated, could allow prediction and optimisation of AV impacts on traffic flow and traffic safety.

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Development of a Safety Evaluation Model for Provincial Highway

Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society ◽

10.1155/2014/394846 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Li Yuan ◽

He-wei Yuan ◽

Yong-feng Ma ◽

Ying-wei Ren

Keyword(s):

Evaluation Model ◽

Safety Evaluation ◽

Highway Safety ◽

Safety Performance ◽

Highway Traffic ◽

Traffic Crash ◽

Crash Data ◽

Evaluation Approach ◽

Traffic Conflict ◽

Accident Data

Provincial highway safety is one of the most important issues in transportation. To evaluate or assess the safety performance of provincial highway, traffic crash analysis or traffic conflict analysis has been used for a long history. However, it is very difficult and time-consuming to obtain historical crash data or traffic conflict data. This study analyzes the provincial highways' accident data during 2006–2010, and the characteristics of provincial highway have been investigated; in addition the influencing elements are identified. A comprehensive approach is introduced to evaluate provincial highway safety performance and corresponding models are developed considering the accidents, geometrics, facilities, and traffic environment. The approach will also result in a safety index to indicate the safety performance level of the provincial highway. In this paper, the approach (called safety evaluation approach) is practically applied to evaluate the safety performance of some provincial highways in Hebei Province. Results from the real application indicate that the approach has good applicability and can be used by field safety engineers.

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Children Riding in the Back of Pickup Trucks: A Neglected Safety Issue

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.86.5.683 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 86 (5) ◽

pp. 683-691

Author(s):

George A. Woodward ◽

Robert G. Bolte

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Motor Vehicle ◽

The United States ◽

Highway Safety ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Direct Result ◽

Highway Traffic ◽

National Highway Traffic Safety ◽

Pickup Truck ◽

Pertinent Data

Motor vehicle-related trauma is the leading cause of death in children in the United States. All states have pediatric restraint requirements for passenger vehicles to help prevent these deaths and injuries. Only a few states, however, possess safety laws or restrictions for passengers who ride in the back of pickup trucks. A retrospective review of medical records for a 40-month period revealed 40 patients whose injuries were a direct result of being a passenger in the cargo area (bed) of a pickup truck. Their injuries and other pertinent data are discussed. Representatives from the Highway Safety Commission of each state were surveyed about their specific highway safety laws. The responses revealed that all states and the District of Columbia have child restraint requirements for passenger automobiles, 34 states have adult restraint laws, but only 17 states have any type of restriction for passengers riding in the back of pickup trucks. Seventy-one percent of the states with pickup truck regulations include only the preschool-age child. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concerning pickup trucks and passenger fatality are presented and discussed.

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