Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Speed zoning (Traffic engineering)'

This report presents an approach on how to utilize information on future states of traffic lights to reduce the energy consumption and trip time for a Heavy Duty Vehicle. Model Predictive Control is proposed as a solution to handle the optimisation on-line and the concept is tested for various prediction horizons in which information can be received. Further on, it is investigated if the implemented controller is robust enough to execute the same task in a scenario where only the current state is known and future states are predicted. Comparison with a reference vehicle demonstrates improved fuel economy as well as reduced trip time when the information is given. It is shown that the results are improved as the prediction horizon is extended, but converges after 400-500 meters. As the phases of the traffic lights are predicted, fuel economy can be improved, but it comes at a price from being non-robust with drastic braking and increased trip time as predictions might be inaccurate.

Emerging connected and autonomous vehicle technologies (CAV) provide an opportunity to improve highway capacity and reduce adverse impacts of stop-and-go traffic. To realize the potential benefits of CAV technologies, this study provides insightful methodological and managerial tools in microscopic and macroscopic traffic scales. In the macroscopic scale, this dissertation proposes an analytical method to formulate highway capacity for a mixed traffic environment where a portion of vehicles are CAVs and the remaining are human-driven vehicles (HVs). The proposed analytical mixed traffic highway capacity model is based on a Markov chain representation of spatial distribution of heterogeneous and stochastic headways. This model captures not only the full spectrum of CAV market penetration rates but also all possible values of CAV platooning intensities that largely affect the spatial distribution of different headway types. Numerical experiments verify that this analytical model accurately quantifies the corresponding mixed traffic capacity at various settings. This analytical model allows for examination of the impact of different CAV technology scenarios on mixed traffic capacity. We identify sufficient and necessary conditions for the mixed traffic capacity to increase (or decrease) with CAV market penetration rate and platooning intensity. These theoretical results caution scholars not to take CAVs as a sure means of increasing highway capacity for granted but rather to quantitatively analyze the actual headway settings before drawing any qualitative conclusion. In the microscopic scale, this study develops innovative control strategies to smooth highway traffic using CAV technologies. First, it formulates a simplified traffic smoothing model for guiding movements of CAVs on a general one-lane highway segment. The proposed simplified model is able to control the overall smoothness of a platoon of CAVs and approximately optimize traffic performance in terms of fuel efficiency and driving comfort. The elegant theoretical properties for the general objective function and the associated constraints provides an efficient analytical algorithm for solving this problem to the exact optimum. Numerical examples reveal that this exact algorithm has an efficient computational performance and a satisfactory solution quality. This trajectory-based traffic smoothing concept is then extended to develop a joint trajectory and signal optimization problem. This problem simultaneously solves the optimal CAV trajectory function shape and the signal timing plan to minimize travel time delay and fuel consumption. The proposed algorithm simplifies the vehicle trajectory and fuel consumption functions that leads to an efficient optimization model that provides exact solutions. Numerical experiments reveal that this algorithm is applicable to any signalized crossing points including intersections and work-zones. Further, the model is tested with various traffic conditions and roadway geometries. These control approaches are then extended to a mixed traffic environment with HVs, connected vehicles (CVs), and CAVs by proposing a CAV-based speed harmonization algorithm. This algorithm develops an innovative traffic prediction model to estimate the real-time status of downstream traffic using traffic sensor data and information provided by CVs and CAVs. With this prediction, the algorithm controls the upstream CAVs so that they smoothly hedge against the backward deceleration waves and gradually merge into the downstream traffic with a reasonable speed. This model addresses the full spectrum of CV and CAV market penetration rates and various traffic conditions. Numerical experiments are performed to assess the algorithm performance with different traffic conditions and CV and CAV market penetration rates. The results show significant improvements in damping traffic oscillations and reducing fuel consumption.

In January 2012, California adopted federal law requiring city's traffic engineers to decrease the pedestrian walking speeds at signalized intersections from 4fps to 3.5fps. Ten signalized intersections along Atlantic Avenue between Spring Street to Carson Street were selected to evaluate impacts due to pedestrian walking speed changes. One hour peak evening volumes were collected and entered into Synchro by Trafficware to compare intersections and approach delays on 75 and 100 seconds cycle lengths with combination of coordinated and uncoordinated systems. Volume growth rate effects, surveyed pedestrian walking speed, and various observed characteristics at signalized intersection crossing were evaluated. Converting pedestrian walking speed from 4-fps to 3.5fps caused the cycle length to increase from 75 seconds to 90 seconds for coordination purposes. The Synchro results, overall, showed more intersection/approach delay, vehicular growth rates data showed a small effect on the major intersections delay when comparing the two walking speeds, and sampled pedestrian walking speeds indicated that the 15^th percentile of pedestrians walked at a faster speed than 3.5fps.

Thesis (MEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Peak mornmg traffic-flow data were obtained from video footage of three representative freeway sections on the Nl and N2 westbound towards Cape Town. Flow, speed, and density measurements were made from the footage with the aid of a stopwatch. Many researchers (2-12) have originated and developed models to describe the relationships between traffic flow characteristics (speed, flow, and density) on freeways. In this report, a number of these models have been investigated with data obtained from South African freeways. The ability of each model to predict flow parameters over the entire range of data was evaluated with the aid of statistical methods. The tests were performed by regressing average speed vs. average density. Flow-density and speed-flow relationships were derived through application of the steady-state equation (2.6). In each case, a final model was chosen through visual inspection that consisted of two separate curves, one for the uncongested flow regime and one for the congested flow regime. Furthermore, speed-flow relationships were examined for individual lanes and compared to relationships established for average lanes. The models were also compared to models obtained from overseas studies (1,16,19) as well as from studies done locally (17). A secondary objective of this study is to investigate the performance of existing freeway facilities through application of the relevant models to the traffic-flow data of a particular facility. The current peak-morning performance of the N2 freeway section is investigated in terms of travel-time and travel cost. The particular study section consists of three lanes, the right hand lane being an HOY lane dedicated to taxis and buses. Different hypothetical cases are investigated. The first hypothetical case is an investigation into the traffic situation on the freeway section without the influence of the HOY lane. The second hypothetical case investigates the traffic situation on the section with perfect operation of the HOY lane. The current performance of the N2 section is compared to the performance of each of the hypothetical cases.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Oggend-spits verkeersvloei data is verkry vanaf drie verteenwoordigende seksies op die Nl en N2 deurpaaie naby Kaapstad met die gebruik van 'n video kamera. Vloei, spoed, end digtheid opnames is gemaak met behulp van 'n stophorlosie. Verskeie navorsers (2-12) het modelle gepostuleer en ontwikkelom die verhoudings tussen verkeersvloei eienskappe (spoed, volume, en digtheid) op deurpaaie te beskryf. In hierdie verslag word 'n aantal van hierdie modelle ondersoek met data wat verkry is van Suid-Afrikaanse deurpaaie. Die vermoë van elke model om vloei eienskappe oor die hele bestek van die data te voorspel is geëvalueer met behulp van statistiese metodes. Statistiese toetse behels 'n regressie analise van gemiddelde spoed teenoor gemiddelde digtheid. Volume-digtheid en spoed-volume verwantskappe is direk afgelei vanaf Vergelyking 2.6. Vir elke geval is 'n finale model m.b.v. visuele inspeksie gekies wat bestaan het uit twee afsonderlike kurwes, een kurwe vir die vryvloei regime en 'n ander kurwe vir hoë-digtheid toestande. Verder word spoedvolume verwantskappe vir afsonderlike deurpad-lane ondersoek en vergelyk met verwantskappe wat verkry is vir gemiddelde lane. Die modelle word ook vergelyk met modelle wat verkry is vanaf oorsese studies (1,16,19), sowel as met modelle wat plaaslik verkry is (17). 'n Sekondêre doel van hierdie studie is om die prestasie van bestaande deurpadfasiliteite te ondersoek deur die verskillende modelle aan te wend tot die verkeersvloei data van 'n betrokke fasiliteit. Die prestasie van die N2 deurpad seksie gedurende oggend-spits verkeer is ondersoek in terme van reistyd en ryskoste. Die betrokke seksie bestaan uit drie lane, waarvan die regter laan gereserveer is vir busse en taxis. Verskeie hipoteses is ook ondersoek. Die eerste hipotese is 'n ondersoek na die verkeers-vloei kondisie op die seksie sonder die invloed van die bus- en taxi-laan. Die tweede hipotese ondersoek die seksie met perfekte werking van die bus- en taxilaan. Die huidige prestasie van die N2 seksie is vergelyk met die prestasie van elk van die hipoteses.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xxi, 271 p.: ill. Includes abstract and vita. Advisors: Ming T. Liu and Wu-chi Feng, Dept. of Computer and Information Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-271).

Thesis (M. S.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.
Committee Chair: Hunter, Michael; Committee Member: Dixon, Karen; Committee Member: Guensler, Randall; Committee Member: Rodgers, Michael; Committee Member: Tsui, Kwok-Leung.

In this study, dynamic effects on high speed railway bridges under moving traffic are investigated. Within this context, the clear definition of the possible dynamic effects is provided and the related studies that exist in literature are investigated. In the light of those studies, analytical procedures that are defined to find the critical dynamic responses such as deflections, accelerations and resonance conditions are examined and a MatLab programming language is written to obtain the responses for different train loading and velocity values. The reliability of the written program is conformed by comparing the results with the related studies in literature. In addition to the analytical procedures, the approaches in the European standards concerning the dynamic effects of railway traffic are defined. A case study is investigated for a bridge that is in the scope of the Ankara-Sivas High Speed Railway Project. The related bridge is modeled by using finite element program, SAP2000 according to the definitions that are stated in European standards. The related high speed railway bridge is analysed with a real train which is French TGV together with the HSLM trains that are defined in Eurocode and the results obtained are compared with each other. This study also includes the analysis of the bridges performed for 7 different stiffness and 3 different mass values to determine the parameters affecting dynamic behaviour.

Variable Speed Limit (VSL) strategies identify and disseminate dynamic speed limits that are determined to be appropriate based on prevailing traffic conditions, road surface conditions, and weather conditions. This dissertation develops and evaluates a shockwave-based VSL system that uses a heuristic switching logic-based controller with specified thresholds of prevailing traffic flow conditions. The system aims to improve operations and mobility at critical bottlenecks. Before traffic breakdown occurrence, the proposed VSL’s goal is to prevent or postpone breakdown by decreasing the inflow and achieving uniform distribution in speed and flow. After breakdown occurrence, the VSL system aims to dampen traffic congestion by reducing the inflow traffic to the congested area and increasing the bottleneck capacity by deactivating the VSL at the head of the congested area. The shockwave-based VSL system pushes the VSL location upstream as the congested area propagates upstream. In addition to testing the system using infrastructure detector-based data, this dissertation investigates the use of Connected Vehicle trajectory data as input to the shockwave-based VSL system performance. Since the field Connected Vehicle data are not available, as part of this research, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communication is modeled in the microscopic simulation to obtain individual vehicle trajectories. In this system, wavelet transform is used to analyze aggregated individual vehicles’ speed data to determine the locations of congestion. The currently recommended calibration procedures of simulation models are generally based on the capacity, volume and system-performance values and do not specifically examine traffic breakdown characteristics. However, since the proposed VSL strategies are countermeasures to the impacts of breakdown conditions, considering breakdown characteristics in the calibration procedure is important to have a reliable assessment. Several enhancements were proposed in this study to account for the breakdown characteristics at bottleneck locations in the calibration process. In this dissertation, performance of shockwave-based VSL is compared to VSL systems with different fixed VSL message sign locations utilizing the calibrated microscopic model. The results show that shockwave-based VSL outperforms fixed-location VSL systems, and it can considerably decrease the maximum back of queue and duration of breakdown while increasing the average speed during breakdown.

Safety and congestion are ever present and increasingly severe transportation problems in urban areas throughout the nation and world. These phenomena can have wide-ranging consequences relating to safety, the economy, and the environment. Adverse weather conditions represent another significant challenge to safety and mobility on highways. Oregon is not immune from either of these global issues. Oregon Route (OR) 217, to the southwest of the downtown Portland, is one of the worst freeways for congestion in the state and is also subject to the Pacific Northwest's frequently inclement and unpredictable climate. High crash rates, severe recurrent bottlenecks and highly unreliable travel times continuously plague the corridor, making it a major headache for the thousands of commuters using it every day. In an effort to more effectively combat both congestion and adverse weather, transportation officials all over the world have been turning to increasingly technological strategies like Active Traffic Management (ATM). This can come in many forms, but among the most common are variable speed limit (VSL) systems which use real-time data to compute and display appropriate reduced speeds during congestion and/or adverse weather. After numerous studies and deliberations, Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) selected Oregon Route (OR) 217 as one of the first locations in the state to be implemented with an advisory VSL system, and that system began operation in the summer of 2014. This thesis seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of this VSL system through the first eight months of its operation through an in-depth and wide-ranging "before and after" analysis. Analysis of traffic flow and safety data for OR 217 from before the VSL system was implemented made clear some of the most prevalent issues which convinced ODOT to pursue VSL. Using those issues as a basis, a framework of seven specific evaluation questions relating to both performance and safety, as well as both congestion and adverse weather, was established to guide the "before and after" comparisons. Hypotheses, and measures of effectiveness for each question were developed, and data were obtained from a diverse array of sources including freeway detectors, ODOT's incident database, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The results of the various "before and after" comparisons performed as a part of this thesis indicate that conditions have changed on OR 217 in a number of ways since the VSL system was activated. Many, but not all, of the findings were consistent with the initial hypotheses and with the findings from other VSL studies in the literature. Certain locations along the corridor have seen significant declines in speed variability, supporting the common notion that VSL systems have a harmonizing effect on traffic flow. Crash rates have not decreased, but crashes have become less frequent in the immediate vicinity of VSL signs. Flow distribution between adjacent lanes has been more even since VSL implementation during midday hours and the evening peak, and travel time reliability has seen widespread improvement in three of the corridor's four primary travel lanes during those same times. The drops in flow that generally occur upstream of bottlenecks once they form have had diminished magnitudes, while the drops in flow downstream of the same bottlenecks have grown. Finally, the increase in travel times that is usually brought about by adverse weather has been smaller since VSL implementation, while the decline in travel time reliability has largely disappeared.

Travel times, operating speeds, and service reliability influence costs and service attractiveness. This paper outlines an approach to quantify how these metrics change after a modification of roadway design or transit routes using archived transit data. The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet), Portland's public transportation provider, archives automatic vehicle location (AVL) data for all buses as part of their bus dispatch system (BDS). This research combines three types of AVL data (stop event, stop disturbance, and high-resolution) to create a detailed account of transit behavior; this probe data gives insights into the behavior of transit as well as general traffic. The methodology also includes an updated approach for confidence intervals estimates that more accurately represent of range of speed and travel time percentile estimates. This methodology is applied to three test cases using a month of AVL data collected before and after the implementation of each roadway change. The results of the test cases highlight the broad applicability for this approach to before-and-after studies.

Variable speed limit (VSL) systems are important active traffic management tools that are being deployed across the U.S. and indeed around the world for relieving congestion and improving safety. Oregon’s first variable advisory speed limit signs were activated along Oregon Highway 217 in the summer of 2014. The variable advisory speed system is responsive to both congestion and weather conditions. This seven-mile corridor stretches around Western Portland and has suffered from high crash rates and peak period congestion in the past. VSL systems are often deployed to address safety, mobility and sustainability related performance. This research seeks to determine whether the newly implemented variable advisory speed limit system has had measurable impacts on traffic safety and what the scale of the impact has been. The research utilizes a before-after crash analysis with three years of data prior to implementation and around 16 months after. Statistical analysis using an Empirical Bayes (EB) approach will aim to separate the direct impacts of the variable advisory speed limit signs from the long term trends on the highway. In addition, the analysis corrects for the changes in traffic volumes over the study period. Three data sources will be utilized including Washington County 911 call data, Oregon incident reports, and official Oregon Department of Transportation crash data reports. The analysis results are compared between data sources to determine the reliability of 911 call data as a proxy for crash statistics. The conclusions should be able to provide an indication of whether variable advisory speed limits can provide increased safety along high crash corridors.

Thesis (MScEng)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Speed-flow-density relationships are the most useful tools in the highway design and planning process. They are useful in predicting the roadway capacity, in determining the adequate level-of-service of traffic flow and in determining travel time for a given roadway. Two-lane two-way rural highways constitute the vast majority of the rural road network in South Africa. Nowadays in the Western Cape and other provinces of South Africa, the speed-flow-density relationships normally used for rural transportation studies are derived from the Highway Capacity Manual, which reflects the traffic conditions in the North American situation. Since the North American traffic conditions may be different from the South African conditions, a need to investigate speed-flow-density relationships on these highways in South Africa arises in order to justify any investment made on these roads. In this context, a video technique was used to collect traffic flow data during morning peak hours on two rural two-lane two-way highways in the Western Cape Province in order to investigate these relationships. Through the use of Adobe premiere C.S 6 software, travel time of individual vehicles and distance headways were measured and used in computation of average speed and average density. Several researchers have developed models to describe the relationships between traffic characteristics on uninterrupted flow facilities. In this study, some of these models were tested using collected data in order to investigate which model fits the data satisfactorily. Statistical methods were used to evaluate the ability of each model to predict the flow characteristics over the whole range of data. Average speed and density data were used through regression analysis to perform curve fitting and testing of these developed models. In the next stage, the model which provided a best representation of the data on each section was selected and through the application of the steady-state equation (2.1), flow-density and speed-flow relationships were established on these sections. The available data were also used to investigate the impact the observation time has on the speed-flow curve and the resulting capacity value. Finally, the developed speed-flow curves were used to determine the capacities of the study sections. These capacity values were used to determine if the shoulder usage contributes in increasing the capacity of two-lane two-way highways by comparing them to the capacity provided by HCM.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Spoed-vloei-digtheid verhoudings is baie handig in die beplanning en ontwerp van paaie. Dit kan ook gebruik word in die voorspelling van kapasiteit, diensvlak en reistyd. Twee-laan twee-rigting paaie maak die grootste deel van die Suid-Afrikaanse padnetwerk uit en vir die beplanning daarvan word van Amerikaanse spoed-vloei-digtheid verhoudings gebruik gemaak aangesien daar nog nie voorheen ‘n studie hiervan in SA gemaak is nie. Video-opnames is gebruik om verkeersvloeidata op twee paaie in die omgewing van Stellenbosch te versamel. Die reistyd en digtheid van individuele voertuie is tydens spitstye waargeneem. Die data is gebruik om te bepaal watter modelle die beste is om die spoed-vloei-digtheid verhoudings vir hierdie paaie te modelleer. Die beste modelle is dan gebruik om die kapasiteit van die paaie te bepaal en dit te vergelyk met die Amerikaanse waardes.

High speed facilities are considered the backbone of any successful transportation system; Interstates, freeways, and expressways carry the majority of daily trips on the transportation network. Although these types of roads are relatively considered the safest among other types of roads, they still experience many crashes, many of which are severe, which not only affect human lives but also can have tremendous economical and social impacts. These facts signify the necessity of enhancing the safety of these high speed facilities to ensure better and efficient operation. Safety problems could be assessed through several approaches that can help in mitigating the crash risk on long and short term basis. Therefore, the main focus of the research in this dissertation is to provide a framework of risk assessment to promote safety and enhance mobility on freeways and expressways. Multi-level Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) were developed at the aggregate level using historical crash data and the corresponding exposure and risk factors to identify and rank sites with promise (hot-spots). Additionally, SPFs were developed at the disaggregate level utilizing real-time weather data collected from meteorological stations located at the freeway section as well as traffic flow parameters collected from different detection systems such as Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) and Remote Traffic Microwave Sensors (RTMS). These disaggregate SPFs can identify real-time risks due to turbulent traffic conditions and their interactions with other risk factors. In this study, two main datasets were obtained from two different regions. Those datasets comprise historical crash data, roadway geometrical characteristics, aggregate weather and traffic parameters as well as real-time weather and traffic data. At the aggregate level, Bayesian hierarchical models with spatial and random effects were compared to Poisson models to examine the safety effects of roadway geometrics on crash occurrence along freeway sections that feature mountainous terrain and adverse weather. At the disaggregate level; a main framework of a proactive safety management system using traffic data collected from AVI and RTMS, real-time weather and geometrical characteristics was provided. Different statistical techniques were implemented. These techniques ranged from classical frequentist classification approaches to explain the relationship between an event (crash) occurring at a given time and a set of risk factors in real time to other more advanced models. Bayesian statistics with updating approach to update beliefs about the behavior of the parameter with prior knowledge in order to achieve more reliable estimation was implemented. Also a relatively recent and promising Machine Learning technique (Stochastic Gradient Boosting) was utilized to calibrate several models utilizing different datasets collected from mixed detection systems as well as real-time meteorological stations. The results from this study suggest that both levels of analyses are important, the aggregate level helps in providing good understanding of different safety problems, and developing policies and countermeasures to reduce the number of crashes in total. At the disaggregate level, real-time safety functions help toward more proactive traffic management system that will not only enhance the performance of the high speed facilities and the whole traffic network but also provide safer mobility for people and goods. In general, the proposed multi-level analyses are useful in providing roadway authorities with detailed information on where countermeasures must be implemented and when resources should be devoted. The study also proves that traffic data collected from different detection systems could be a useful asset that should be utilized appropriately not only to alleviate traffic congestion but also to mitigate increased safety risks. The overall proposed framework can maximize the benefit of the existing archived data for freeway authorities as well as for road users.
ID: 031988164; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references.
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering
Engineering and Computer Science
Civil Engineering

Although the association between weather and traffic variables or crash events appear intuitive to motorists, quantifying the effects that weather, especially rain, has on driver response in travel speeds, traffic demands, and susceptibility of accident occurrence is needed to evaluate practical aspects of traffic operations and safety measures. Previous studies have researched driver responses to inclement weather on roadways located primarily in northern and western regions of the United States (U.S.), Canada, and Europe. However, driver familiarity to local weather conditions is a factor that should be considered in determining inclement weather effects on traffic variables and crash occurrence. This research focused on the effects of rain precipitation on freeways located in the Southeast region of the U.S. to determine if results from previous studies are general indicators or location specific in nature. The impacts of rain on hourly mean speeds and traffic volumes were studied for freeway segments in Jacksonville, Florida. Results indicate significant reductions in both traffic parameters with increasing rain intensity. Crash data examined along the same freeway sections found that hourly crash risks and crash rates per 100 million vehicle miles of travel, based on rain exposure hours, increased with increasing rain intensity, and were significant. However, hour-of-day and season of year had little effect on hourly crash occurrence. Rain intensity also significantly increased the proportion of injury accidents in the majority of traffic conditions.

Baigiamajame darbe buvo atlikta mokslinių darbų analizė darbo zonų tematika. Pateikiamos pagrindinės darbo zonos atsiradimo priežastys. Kelio darbo vietos suklasifikuotos pagal keletą kriterijų ir aprašomos darbo zonų valdymo galimybės. Darbe išskiriamos dvi pagrindinės darbo zonų problemos: eismo saugumo ir transporto priemonių intensyvumo. Analizuojamos darbo zonų spūsčių automobilių keliuose sukeliamos problemos. Darbe pateikiami transporto priemonių intensyvumo pagrindiniai parametrai ir veiksniai, turintys jiems įtakos. Atlikti eksperimentiniai tyrimai pasirinktose darbo zonose ir gauti rezultatai apibendrinami. Darbo apimtis – 72 psl. teksto be priedų, 39 iliustr., 12 lent., 26 bibliografinių šaltinių.
The final work was carried out research work analyzes the work zone topics. Contains the main work area causes. Multiple jobs are grouped according to several criteria and a description of the work zone management capabilities. The paper distinguishes between two areas of work problems: traffic safety and transport intensity. Analyzed areas of work on the roads caused congestion problems. The paper presents the vehicle parameters and the intensity of the main factors influencing them. Tests were performed in selected areas of work and the results obtained are summarized. Thesis consists of: 72 p. texts without appendixes, 39 pictures, 12 tables, 26 bibliographical entries.

An already calibrated and validated VISSIM model for Simplified Dynamic Lane Merge System (SDLMS) in accordance with the real life work zone was modified with a VSL through Vehicle Actuated Programming (VAP) code. Three different logics were coded each for VSL alone, early SDLMS+VSL and late SDLMS+VSL. All these logics were fine tuned with several test runs before finalizing it for the final simulation. It is found through the simulation of above mentioned scenarios that for low and medium volume levels (V0500, V1000 and V1500), there is no significant difference between the Maintenance of Traffic (MOT) plans for mean throughputs. However, for higher volume levels (V2000 and V2500), late SDLMS with and without VSL produced higher mean throughputs for all compliance rates and truck percentages except when the demand volume was 2,500 vph and compliance of 60%, where it produces the significantly lower mean throughputs. In terms of travel time through the work zone, results indicated that there is no significant difference between MOT types for demand levels of V0500 and V1000 when compliance is 40% or less but for compliance of 60% and more, only demand volume level that is not significantly different from other MOT types is V0500. This study revealed that VSL increases travel time through the work zone. This might be due to non-compliant vehicles that follow the compliant vehicle ahead unless they find a sufficient gap in adjacent lane to pass the compliant vehicle. It is also found out that VSL makes the system safer at higher volumes (2,000 vph and 2,500 vph). This was observed through safety surrogate measures selected for this study.; Another outcome of this study is that the addition of VSL to the dynamic merge systems helps in improving the overall safety of the system by lowering speed variances and deceleration means of the vehicles travelling through the work zone. The passage of traffic through the work zone is made safer when a speed control is integrated to a dynamic merge system. It can be inferred from the simulation results that integrated SDLMS and VSL systems have better performance in terms of traffic mobility and safety than existing individual controls and also show that the integrated SDLMS and VSL system has more potential than each individual systems.; In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in the amount of construction work on the U.S. national highways. Most of the work undertaken is the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the existing transportation networks. Work zones in the United States are likely to increase in number, duration and length due to emphasis on repair and highway reconstruction as a significant portion of all federal-aid highway funds are now geared toward highway rehabilitation. The challenge of mobility is particularly acute in work zone areas as road repair and construction intensifies traffic issues and concentrates them in specific locations and at specific times. Due to the capacity drop, which is the result of lane closure in work zone area, congestion will occur with a high traffic demand. The congestion increases number and severity of traffic conflicts which raise the potential for accidents; furthermore traffic operational properties of roadway in work zone area become worse. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies have been developed and are being deployed to improve the safety and mobility of traffic in and around work zones. In several states in the US, the use of Dynamic Merge Controls also known as Dynamic Lane Merge (DLM) system has been initiated to enhance traffic safety and to improve traffic flow in work zone areas. The DLM usually takes two forms; dynamic early merge and dynamic late merge. The use of variable speed limit (VSL) systems at work zones is also one of those measures. VSL systems improve safety by helping the driver in determining the maximum speed that drivers should travel. Besides adding improvement to safety, they are also expected to improve mobility at the work zones.; The main goal of this study is to evaluate the safety and operational effectiveness of the dynamic merge systems i.e. the dynamic early lane merge and dynamic late lane merge, in the presence of VSL system. More specifically, the VISSIM model is utilized to simulate a two-to-one lane configuration when one out of the two lanes in the work zone is closed for traffic. Six different scenarios were adopted to assess the effectiveness of these scenarios under different traffic demand volumes and different drivers' compliance rates to the messages displayed by the systems. These scenarios are; bullet] Work Zone without VSL and without SDLMS or the current Motorist Awareness System (MAS) bullet] Work Zone with VSL and without SDLMS bullet] Work Zone with VSL and Early SDLMS bullet] Work Zone with VSL and Late SDLMS bullet] Work Zone with early SDLMS and without VSL bullet] Work Zone with early SDLMS and without VSL
ID: 029050385; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (M.S.)--University of Central Florida, 2010.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-192).
M.S.
Masters
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Engineering and Computer Science

This thesis examines the marginal cost of congested travel to a variety of businesses by observing time spent in congestion and estimating excess labor costs based upon the relevant value of time. The fleets in the scoping study represented commercial deliveries of goods and services, government agencies, and transit systems. Observations on limited-access expressways within the 13-county Atlanta metropolitan region were used in the analysis. Vehicles were monitored by using a passive GPS assembly that transmitted speed and location data in real-time to an off-site location. Installation and operation during the observation period required no interaction from the driver. Over 217 hours of good freeway movement during 354 vehicle-days was recorded. Rates of delay, expressed as a unit of lost minutes per mile traveled, were calculated by taking the difference in speeds observed during congestion from an optimal free-flow speed of 45 mph and dividing that by the distance traveled per segment. The difference between the 50th and 95th percentile delay rates was used as the measure for travel unreliability. Daily average values of extra time needed per fleet vehicle to ensure on-time arrivals were derived, and the median buffer across all fleets was 1.65 hours of added time per vehicle. Weekly marginal costs per fleet vehicle were estimated by factoring in the corresponding driver wages or hourly operation costs (for transit fleets). Equivalent toll rates were calculated by multiplying the 95th percentile delay rate by the hourly costs. The equivalent toll per mile traveled was representative of an equal relationship between the marginal costs of congestion experienced and a hypothetical state of free-flow travel (under first-best rules of marginal cost pricing). The median equivalent toll rates across all fleets was $0.43 per mile for weekday mornings, $0.13 per mile for midday weekdays, $0.53 per mile for afternoon weekdays and $0.01 per mile for weekday nights and weekends.

When further demands are placed on emissions and performance of cars, trucks and busses, the vehicle manufacturers are looking to have cheap ways to evaluate their products for specific customers' needs. Using simulation tools to quickly compare use cases instead of manually recording data is a possible way forward. However, existing traffic simulation tools do not provide enough detail in each vehicle for the driving to represent real life driving patterns with regards to road features. For the purpose of this thesis data has been recorded by having different people drive a specific route featuring highway driving, traffic lights and many curves. Using this data, models have then been estimated that describe how human drivers adjust their speed through curves, how long braking distances typically are with respect to the driving speed, and the varying deceleration during braking sequences. An additional model has also been created that produces a speed variation when driving on highways. In the end all models are implemented in Matlab using a traffic control interface to interact with the traffic simulation tool SUMO. The results of this work are promising with the improved simulation being able to replicate the most significant characteristics seen from human drivers when approaching curves, traffic lights and intersections.

Walking speeds are an important parameter in the process of designing for example arenas, malls and station environments, to be able to make them safe and comfortable for the users. Previous studies have mainly focused on pedestrian walking speeds at zebra crossings and the results of these are the basis for traffic signal timing. The studies have also investigated the relationship between walking speed and gender, age and density of pedestrians. From the results of these studies, conclusions have been drawn that these three factors have an impact on pedestrian walking speeds. To make microsimulations of pedestrians reflect reality as well as possible, pedestrian walking speeds should be investigated at regular intervals, as walking speeds change with the ongoing change of the composition of the population. In the simulation of station environments, pedestrian speeds should also be used that have been measured in these types of environments. Alternatively, the speeds should be measured at locations near stations, rather than using speeds from zebra crossings. As a step in improving the above-mentioned microsimulations, the aim of this work is to study walking speeds at a public transport hub during rush hour. The work also focuses on connecting walking speeds to each sex and level of crowding. To achieve this goal, video recordings were performed at the exchange point between Stockholms östra and Tekniska högskolan in Stockholm, Sweden, where public transport passengers change between light rail and subway. Analysis of the video films resulted in walking speeds which were higher than those previously measured at zebra crossings. The most obvious factors explaining this are the differences in the environment where the studies were conducted and that the walking speeds in this thesis were measured during rush hour. The results show that simulations of stations and locations nearby should not be based on walking speeds measured at zebra crossings. Analysis of the video films also resulted in the calculated mean walking speed of women being marginally lower than for men. Regarding the link between density of pedestrians and their walking speeds a conclusion can be drawn that at low densities pedestrians have good opportunities to freely select their own walking speed. The freely chosen walking speed which can thus be maintained at low densities can vary widely between different individuals. At higher, unlike at lower densities, it is difficult for pedestrians to maintain a freely chosen speed due to interactions with other pedestrians. The calculated average walking speed at higher densities therefor decreases as the density increases. Interactions with other pedestrians can either mean that a pedestrian is forced to lower the speed or that he or she must walk faster to keep up with the current pace. When analyzing the video films, several other factors effecting the walking speed could be noted. Of these factors, grouping of pedestrians and if the pedestrian is using a phone or carrying luggage could be seen to decrease the pedestrian speed. These factors’ impact on walking speeds was only superficially studied in this thesis, and no reliable conclusions can therefore be drawn. Keywords: Pedestrian walking speed, public transport traffic hub, density of pedestrians, Level of

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur en ökad belysningsstyrka på övergångsställen påverkar bilisters hastighet. Vid vissa övergångsställen används idag intensivbelysning. Intensivbelysning innebär att belysningen förstärkts vid platsen och utformas av en eller flera armaturer över eller i anknytning till övergångsställen för att öka synbarheten för fotgängare. Målet med studien är att undersöka om en ökad belysningsstyrka på övergångsställen har en positiv eller en negativ påverkan på bilisters hastighet och därför kunna bidra till en ökad kunskap inom trafiksäkerhet. För att undersöka hur intensivbelysning påverkar bilisters hastighet har hastighetsmätningar utförts på två övergångsställen i centrala Jönköping samt vid en kontrollplats. Hastighetsmätningarna utfördes på en urban väg med en hastighetsbegränsning på 40 km/h. mätningarna utfördes under perioden 2020-03-16 – 2020-03-24. Det ena övergångsstället har intensivbelysning det andra har det inte, för att kunna jämföra de två platserna utfördes mätningar av både luminans och belysningsstyrka. Övergångsstället med intensivbelysning benämnt som observationsplats 1, hade en medelbelysningsstyrka på 73,27 lux och en medelluminans på 2,7 cd/m². Övergångsstället utan intensivbelysning benämnt som observationsplats 2, hade en medelbelysningsstyrka på 15.63 lux och en medelluminans på 1,3 cd/m². Det skiljer alltså 57,64 lux i medelbelysningsstyrka mellan observationsplats 1 och observationsplats 2, och 1,4 cd/m² i medelluminans. Vid observationsplats 1 uppmättes dagtid 10 passager. Vilket resulterade i en medelhastighet på 35,7 km/h (standardavvikelse 4,6 km/h). Kvällstid uppmättes 35 passager. Vilket resulterade i en medelhastighet på 37,49 km/h (standardavvikelse 5,3 km/h). Vid observationsplats 2 uppmättes dagtid 10 passager. Vilket resulterade i en medelhastighet på 40 km/h (standardavvikelse 4 km/h). Kvällstid uppmättes 34 passager. Vilket resulterade i en medelhastighet på 36 km/h (standardavvikelse 4 km/h). Resultatet från studien antyder att intensivbelysning vid övergångsställen leder till en högre fordonshastighet. Skillnaden i medelhastighet mellan observationsplats 1 och observationsplats 2 var låg 1,49 km/h, standardavvikelsen var hög (observationsplats 1 5,3 km/h observationsplats 2 4 km/h).

Trafikinducerade vibrationer: En studie om busskuddars påverkan på vibrationsnivåer i mark och byggnader. Erika Johansson Kling I Uppsala används busskuddar som en form av medveten ojämnhet i vägbanan för att sänka hastigheten och öka trafiksäkerheten på olycksdrabbade vägsträckor. Boende i bostäder belägna nära busskuddar har dock rapporterat att de ibland kan uppleva vibrationer kopplade till då tunga fordon passerar busskuddar som störande. Denna studie syftade till att kvantifiera vibrationsnivåer i mark och byggnader nära busskuddar samt utreda centrala faktorer som kan påverka vibrationsnivån och vibrationsutbredningen. Genom vibrationsmätningar i fält på fyra platser i Uppsala samlades data in och analyserades utifrån angivna frågeställningar. Resultatet bekräftade det som litteraturstudien belyste, att det är svårt att på ett generellt sätt beskriva vibrationsutbredningen och att den tydligt är platsspecifik. Vid samtliga undersöka platser kunde dock konstateras att vibrationsnivån i marken tenderar att vara en faktor mellan 2,5–32 högre då ett tungt fordon passerar en busskudde, jämfört med då det passerar en opåverkad referenspunkt längs med samma väg. Generellt avtog dessutom vibrationsnivån i marken med ökat avstånd från källan. Vilken vibrationsled som dominerade varierade dock både mellan platserna och för olika avstånd från källan. Vid en av de fyra mätplatserna förstärktes vibrationsnivån i byggnaden, jämfört med i marken utanför. Vid samma mätplats överskreds dessutom känseltröskeln inomhus, och en skyddsvibrationsnivå på 0,5 mm/s kan behöva tillämpas vid busskudden för att förhindra detta. Mätningarna visade att både vibrationer med låga och höga frekvenser kan uppstå i marken nära busskudden då tunga fordon passerar. Dock var det enbart vibrationer med låga frekvenser som spreds vidare i marken vid ett ökat avstånd från källan. Studien visade dessutom att det kan krävas ett skyddsavstånd mellan busskudde och byggnad på cirka 100 meter för att känseltröskeln inte ska riskera att överskridas inomhus. Trots att ett sådant avstånd är platsspecifikt, belyser det vilka krav det skulle kunna ställa på samhällsbyggnaden i ett växande Uppsala. Det faktum att busskuddar kan förhöja vibrationsnivån i marken vid passage av tunga fordon ter sig något märkligt, då busskuddarna ska vara utformade på ett sätt som tillåter tunga fordon att passera relativt obehindrat. Fler studier kring busskuddarnas utformning och/eller grundläggning är därför av stor relevans. Det är vidare relevant att exempelvis utreda hur fordonens hastighet över busskuddar påverkar vibrationsnivån i marken, då litteraturstudien belyser att det främst är då tunga fordon passerar ojämnheter med hög hastighet som betydande vibrationer kan uppstå. Busskuddar anses vara en av de mest effektiva hastighetssänkande åtgärderna, men studien visar att det kan ske på bekostnad av ökade vibrationsnivåer. En grundläggande helhetsbedömning bör därför göras av busskuddarnas lämplighet vid kommande stadsplanering. Nyckelord: markvibration, vibrationsmätning, busskudde, trafik, samhällsbyggnad. Institutionen för geovetenskaper, Uppsala Universitet, Villavägen 16, SE-752 36 Uppsala. ISSN 1401–5765.
Traffic induced vibrations: A study on the effect of speed control cushions on vibration levels in surrounding land and buildings. Erika Johansson Kling In Uppsala, speed control cushions are used as a form of conscious unevenness in the road surface to reduce speed and increase road safety on accident-affected road sections. However, housing in residences located near speed control cushions have reported that they can sometimes experience vibrations linked to when heavy vehicles pass speed control cushions as disturbing. This study aimed to quantify vibration levels in land and buildings near speed control cushions and to investigate key factors that can affect the vibration level and vibration propagation. Through vibration measurements at four places in Uppsala, data was collected and analyzed based on the stated research questions. The result confirmed what the literature study highlighted, that it is difficult to describe the propagation of vibrations in a general way and that it is clearly site-specific. However, it was found at all the measurement sites that the vibration level in the ground tends to be a factor between 2.5 and 32 higher when a heavy vehicle passes a speed control cushion, compared to when it passes an unaffected reference point along the same road. Generally, the vibration level in the ground also decreased with increased distance from the source. However, the level of vibration that dominated varied between the locations and for different distances from the source. At one measurement site, the vibration level in the building was amplified compared to in the ground outside. At the same measurement site, the sensing threshold was also exceeded indoors, and a protection vibration level of 0.5 mm/s may have to be applied nearby the speed control cushions to prevent this from happening. The measurements showed that both vibrations with low and high frequencies can occur in the ground near the speed control cushions when heavy vehicles pass. However, it was only vibrations with low frequencies that propagated further in the ground at an increased distance from the source. The study also showed that a safety distance between speed control cushions and buildings of approximately 100 meters may be required in order for the sensitivity threshold not to be exceeded indoors. Although such a distance is sitespecific, it highlights what requirements it could put on the urban planning in a growing Uppsala. The fact that speed control cushions can increase the level of vibration in the ground when heavy vehicles pass seems somewhat strange, since the speed control cushions are supposed to be designed in a way that allows heavy vehicles to pass relatively unobstructed. Additional studies on the design and/or foundation of the speed control cushions are therefore of great relevance. It is furthermore relevant to investigate, for example, how the speed of the vehicles when passing over speed control cushions affects the vibration level in the ground, since the literature study highlights that it is primarily when heavy vehicles pass an unevenness in the road surface at high speed that significant vibrations can occur. Speed control cushions are considered to be one of the most effective speed reducing measures, but the study shows that they may lead to increased vibration levels. An overall 3 evaluation should therefore be made regarding the suitability of speed control cushions in future urban planning. Keywords: ground vibration, vibration measurement, speed control cushion, traffic, urban planning. Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE-752 36 Uppsala. ISSN 1401–5765.

Traffic safety has become the first concern in the transportation area. Crashes have cause extensive human and economic losses. With the objective of reducing crash occurrence and alleviating crash injury severity, major efforts have been dedicated to reveal the hazardous factors that affect crash occurrence at both the aggregate (targeting crash frequency per segment, intersection, etc.,) and disaggregate levels (analyzing each crash event). The aggregate traffic safety studies, mainly developing safety performance functions (SPFs), are being conducted for the purpose of unveiling crash contributing factors for the interest locations. Results of the aggregate traffic safety studies can be used to identify crash hot spots, calculate crash modification factors (CMF), and improve geometric characteristics. Aggregate analyses mainly focus on discovering the hazardous factors that are related to the frequency of total crashes, of specific crash type, or of each crash severity level. While disaggregate studies benefit from the reliable surveillance systems which provide detailed real-time traffic and weather data. This information could help in capturing microlevel influences of the hazardous factors which might lead to a crash. The disaggregate traffic safety models, also called real-time crash risk evaluation models, can be used in monitoring crash hazardousness with the real-time field data fed in. One potential use of real-time crash risk evaluation models is to develop Variable Speed Limits (VSL) as a part of a freeway management system. Models have been developed to predict crash occurrence to proactively improve traffic safety and prevent crash occurrence. In this study, first, aggregate safety performance functions were estimated to unveil the different risk factors affecting crash occurrence for a mountainous freeway section. Then disaggregate real-time crash risk evaluation models have been developed for the total crashes with both the machine learning and hierarchical Bayesian models. Considering the need for analyzing both aggregate and disaggregate aspects of traffic safety, systematic multi-level traffic safety studies have been conducted for single- and multi-vehicle crashes, and weekday and weekend crashes. Finally, the feasibility of utilizing a VSL system to improve traffic safety on freeways has been investigated. This research was conducted based on data obtained from a 15-mile mountainous freeway section on I-70 in Colorado. The data contain historical crash data, roadway geometric characteristics, real-time weather data, and real-time traffic data. Real-time weather data were recorded by 6 weather stations installed along the freeway section, while the real-time traffic data were obtained from the Remote Traffic Microwave Sensor (RTMS) radars and Automatic Vechicle Identification (AVI) systems. Different datasets have been formulated from various data sources, and prepared for the multi-level traffic safety studies. In the aggregate traffic safety investigation, safety performance functions were developed to identify crash occurrence hazardous factors. For the first time real-time weather and traffic data were used in SPFs. Ordinary Poisson model and random effects Poisson models with Bayesian inference approach were employed to reveal the effects of weather and traffic related variables on crash occurrence. Two scenarios were considered: one seasonal based case and one crash type based case. Deviance Information Criterion (DIC) was utilized as the comparison criterion; and the correlated random effects Poisson models outperform the others. Results indicate that weather condition variables, especially precipitation, play a key role in the safety performance functions. Moreover, in order to compare with the correlated random effects Poisson model, Multivariate Poisson model and Multivariate Poisson-lognormal model have been estimated. Conclusions indicate that, instead of assuming identical random effects for the homogenous segments, considering the correlation effects between two count variables would result in better model fit. Results from the aggregate analyses shed light on the policy implication to reduce crash frequencies. For the studied roadway segment, crash occurrence in the snow season have clear trends associated with adverse weather situations (bad visibility and large amount of precipitation); weather warning systems can be employed to improve road safety during the snow season. Furthermore, different traffic management strategies should be developed according to the distinct seasonal influence factors. In particular, sites with steep slopes need more attention from the traffic management center and operators especially during snow seasons to control the excess crash occurrence. Moreover, distinct strategy of freeway management should be designed to address the differences between single- and multi-vehicle crash characteristics. In addition to developing safety performance functions with various modeling techniques, this study also investigates four different approaches of developing informative priors for the independent variables. Bayesian inference framework provides a complete and coherent way to balance the empirical data and prior expectations; merits of these informative priors have been tested along with two types of Bayesian hierarchical models (Poisson-gamma and Poisson-lognormal models). Deviance Information Criterion, R-square values, and coefficients of variance for the estimations were utilized as evaluation measures to select the best model(s). Comparisons across the models indicate that the Poisson-gamma model is superior with a better model fit and it is much more robust with the informative priors. Moreover, the two-stage Bayesian updating informative priors provided the best goodness-of-fit and coefficient estimation accuracies. In addition to the aggregate analyses, real-time crash risk evaluation models have been developed to identify crash contributing factors at the disaggregate level. Support Vector Machine (SVM), a recently proposed statistical learning model and Hierarchical Bayesian logistic regression models were introduced to evaluate real-time crash risk. Classification and regression tree (CART) model has been developed to select the most important explanatory variables. Based on the variable selection results, Bayesian logistic regression models and SVM models with different kernel functions have been developed. Model comparisons based on receiver operating curves (ROC) demonstrate that the SVM model with Radial basis kernel function outperforms the others. Results from the models demonstrated that crashes are likely to happen during congestion periods (especially when the queuing area has propagated from the downstream segment); high variation of occupancy and/or volume would increase the probability of crash occurrence. Moreover, effects of microscopic traffic, weather, and roadway geometric factors on the occurrence of specific crash types have been investigated. Crashes have been categorized as rear-end, sideswipe, and single-vehicle crashes. AVI segment average speed, real-time weather data, and roadway geometric characteristics data were utilized as explanatory variables. Conclusions from this study imply that different active traffic management (ATM) strategies should be designed for three- and two-lane roadway sections and also considering the seasonal effects. Based on the abovementioned results, real-time crash risk evaluation models have been developed separately for multi-vehicle and single-vehicle crashes, and weekday and weekend crashes. Hierarchical Bayesian logistic regression models (random effects and random parameter logistic regression models) have been introduced to address the seasonal variations, crash unit level's diversities, and unobserved heterogeneity caused by geometric characteristics. For the multi-vehicle crashes: congested conditions at downstream would contribute to an increase in the likelihood of multi-vehicle crashes; multi-vehicle crashes are more likely to occur during poor visibility conditions and if there is a turbulent area that exists downstream. Drivers who are unable to reduce their speeds timely are prone to causing rear-end crashes. While for the single-vehicle crashes: slow moving traffic platoons at the downstream detector of the crash occurrence locations would increase the probability of single-vehicle crashes; large variations of occupancy downstream would also increase the likelihood of single-vehicle crash occurrence. Substantial efforts have been dedicated to revealing the hazardous factors that affect crash occurrence from both the aggregate and disaggregate level in this study, however, findings and conclusions from these research work need to be transferred into applications for roadway design and freeway management. This study further investigates the feasibility of utilizing Variable Speed Limits (VSL) system, one key part of ATM, to improve traffic safety on freeways. A proactive traffic safety improvement VSL control algorithm has been proposed. First, an extension of the traffic flow model METANET was employed to predict traffic flow while considering VSL's impacts on the flow-density diagram; a real-time crash risk evaluation model was then estimated for the purpose of quantifying crash risk; finally, the optimal VSL control strategies were achieved by employing an optimization technique of minimizing the total predicted crash risks along the VSL implementation area. Constraints were set up to limit the increase of the average travel time and differences between posted speed limits temporarily and spatially. The proposed VSL control strategy was tested for a mountainous freeway bottleneck area in the microscopic simulation software VISSIM. Safety impacts of the VSL system were quantified as crash risk improvements and speed homogeneity improvements. Moreover, three different driver compliance levels were modeled in VISSIM to monitor the sensitivity of VSL's safety impacts on driver compliance levels. Conclusions demonstrate that the proposed VSL system could effectively improve traffic safety by decreasing crash risk, enhancing speed homogeneity, and reducing travel time under both high and moderate driver compliance levels; while the VSL system does not have significant effects on traffic safety enhancement under the low compliance scenario. Future implementations of VSL control strategies and related research topics were also discussed.
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering
Engineering and Computer Science
Civil Engineering

The growth of interactive multimedia (IMM) applications is one of the major driving forces behind the swift evolution of next-generation wireless networks where the traffic is expected to be varying and widely diversified. The amalgamation of multimedia applications on high-speed wireless networks is somewhat a natural evolution. Wireless local area network (WLAN) was initially developed to carry non-real time data. Since this type of traffic is bursty in nature, the channel access schemes were based on contention. However real time traffic (e.g. voice, video and other IMM applications) are different from this traditional data traffic as they have stringent constraints on quality of service (QoS) metrics like delay, jitter and throughput. Employing contention free channel access schemes that are implemented on the point coordination function (PCF), as opposed to the numerous works on the contending access schemes, is the plausible and intuitive approach to accommodate these innate requirements. Published researches show that works have been done on improving the distributed coordination function (DCF) to handle IMM traffic. Since the WLAN traffic today is a mix of both, it is only natural to utilize both, DCF and PCF, in a balanced manner to leverage the inherent strengths of each of them. We saw a scope in this technique and develop a scheme that combines both contention and non-contention based phases to handle heterogeneous traffic in WLAN. Standard access scheme, like 802.11e, improves DCF functionality by trying to emulate the functions of PCF. Researchers have made a multitude of improvements on 802.11e to reduce the costs of implementing the scheme on WLAN. We explore improving the PCF, instead, as this is more stable and implementations would be less costly. The initial part of this research investigates the effectiveness of the point coordination function (PCF) for carrying interactive multimedia traffic in WLAN. The performance statistics of IMM traffic were gathered and analyzed. Our results showed that PCF-based setup for IMM traffic is most suitable for high load scenarios. We confirmed that there is a scope in improving IMM transmissions on WLAN by using the PCF. This is supported by published researches on PCF related schemes in carrying IMM traffic on WLAN. Further investigations, via simulations, revealed that partitioning the superframe (SF) duration according to the need of the IMM traffic has considerable impact on the QoS of the WLAN. A theoretical model has been developed to model the two phases, i.e., PCF and DCF, of WLAN medium access control (MAC). With this model an optimum value of the contention free period (CFP) was calculated to meet the QoS requirement of IMM traffic being transmitted. Treating IMM traffic as data traffic or equating both IMM and non-IMM together could compromise a fair treatment that should be given to these QoS sensitive traffic. A self-adaptive scheme, called MAC with Dynamic Superframe Selection (MDSS) scheme, generates an optimum SF configuration according to the QoS requirements of traversing IMM traffic. That particular scheme is shown to provide a more efficient transmission on WLAN. MDSS maximizes the utilization of CFP while providing fairness to contention period (CP). The performance of MDSS is compared to that of 802.11e, which is taken as the benchmark for comparison. Jitter and delay result for MDSS is relatively lower while throughput is higher. This confirms that MDSS is capable of making significant improvement to the standard access scheme.

Human factors are closely related to the causation of road accidents. Among them, the route familiarity plays an important role, since it can influence the driving task. The relationships between route familiarity and road safety are explored in this thesis from both a theoretical and an application point of view. A general background section is devoted to the explanation of all those possible relationships, as reported in literature. They concern the influence on the driving task, the driver behaviour, the perceived risk, the performances, the travel utility. A specific section is devoted to the practical involvements in road design and traffic engineering. The research work was focused on four different but parallel aspects connected to the main topic. The evolution of speeds and trajectories was inquired through the use of experimental data. The same data were used to investigate the possible changes in drivers’ perception. The potential impact of route familiarity on road accidents was firstly analyzed from a theoretical point of view based on exisiting frameworks. Thereafter, it was analyzed based on a traffic and accident database acquired in Norway, through different research steps. The highlighted relationships between route familiarity and road safety were used to draw conclusions and propose potential developments related to the road safety practice. Moreover, given the several measures of familiarity found in previous literature, a more detailed and unified definition for measuring familiarity was proposed. It is based on both time and distance scales, according to previous theories and findings.