This study presents results from sentiment analysis of Dynamic message sign (DMS) message content, focusing on messages that include numbers of road fatalities. As a traffic management tool, DMS plays a role in influe...This study presents results from sentiment analysis of Dynamic message sign (DMS) message content, focusing on messages that include numbers of road fatalities. As a traffic management tool, DMS plays a role in influencing driver behavior and assisting transportation agencies in achieving safe and efficient traffic movement. However, the psychological and behavioral effects of displaying fatality numbers on DMS remain poorly understood;hence, it is important to know the potential impacts of displaying such messages. The Iowa Department of Transportation displays the number of fatalities on a first screen, followed by a supplemental message hoping to promote safe driving;an example is “19 TRAFFIC DEATHS THIS YEAR IF YOU HAVE A SUPER BOWL DON’T DRIVE HIGH.” We employ natural language processing to decode the sentiment and undertone of the supplementary message and investigate how they influence driving speeds. According to the results of a mixed effect model, drivers reduced speeds marginally upon encountering DMS fatality text with a positive sentiment with a neutral undertone. This category had the largest associated amount of speed reduction, while messages with negative sentiment with a negative undertone had the second largest amount of speed reduction, greater than other combinations, including positive sentiment with a positive undertone.展开更多
This study investigates relationships between congestion and travel time performance metrics and crashes on road segments. The study focuses on work zone routes in Iowa, utilizing 2021 commercially-available probe veh...This study investigates relationships between congestion and travel time performance metrics and crashes on road segments. The study focuses on work zone routes in Iowa, utilizing 2021 commercially-available probe vehicle data and crash data. Travel time performance metrics were derived from the probe vehicle data, and crash counts were obtained from the crash data. Additional variables included road characteristics (traffic volume, road type, segment length) and a categorical variable for the presence of a work zone. A mixed effect linear regression model was employed to identify relationships between road segment crash counts and the selected performance metrics. This was accomplished for two sets of models that include congestion performance measures at different defining threshold values, along with travel time performance measures. The study results indicate that the congestion indicators, certain travel time performance measures, and traffic counts were statistically significant and positively correlated with crash counts. Indicator variables for rural interstate locations and non-active work zones have a stronger influence on crash count than those for municipal interstate locations and active work zones. These findings can inform decision-makers on work zone safety strategies and crash mitigation planning, especially in high traffic volume areas prone to congestion and queues.展开更多
There are over four million miles of two-lane roadways across the United States, of which a substantial portion is low-volume roads (LVR). Traditionally, most traffic safety efforts and countermeasures focus on high-v...There are over four million miles of two-lane roadways across the United States, of which a substantial portion is low-volume roads (LVR). Traditionally, most traffic safety efforts and countermeasures focus on high-volume high-crash urban locations. This is because LVRs cover an extensive area, and the rarity of crashes makes it challenging to use crash data to monitor the safety performance of LVRs regularly. In addition, obtaining up-to-date roadway information, such as pavement or shoulder conditions of an extensive LVR network, can be exceptionally difficult. In recent times, crowdsourced hard-acceleration and braking event data have become commercially available, which can provide precise geolocation information and can be readily acquired from different vendors. The present paper examines the potential use of this data to identify opportunities to monitor the safety of LVRs. This research examined approximately 12 million hard-acceleration and hard-braking events over a 3-months period and 26,743 crashes, including 9373 fatal injuries over the past 5-year period. The study found a moderate correlation between hard acceleration/hard-braking events with historical crash events. This study conducted a hot spot analysis using hard-acceleration/hard-braking and crash datasets. Hotspot analysis detected spatial clusters of high-risk crash locations and detected 848 common high-risk sites. Finally, this paper proposes a combined ranking scheme that simultaneously considers historical crash events and hard-acceleration/hard-braking events. The research concludes by suggesting that agencies can potentially use the hard-acceleration and hard-braking event dataset along with the historical crash dataset to effectively supervise the safety performance of the vast network of LVRs more frequently.展开更多
Emerging connected vehicle (CV) data sets have recently become commercially available, enabling analysts to develop a variety of powerful performance measures without deploying any field infrastructure. This paper pre...Emerging connected vehicle (CV) data sets have recently become commercially available, enabling analysts to develop a variety of powerful performance measures without deploying any field infrastructure. This paper presents several tools using CV data to evaluate traffic progression quality along a signalized corridor. These include both performance measures for high-level analysis as well as visualizations to examine details of the coordinated operation. With the use of CV data, it is possible to assess not only the movement of traffic on the corridor but also to consider its origin-destination (O-D) path through the corridor. Results for the real-world operation of an eight-intersection signalized arterial are presented. A series of high-level performance measures are used to evaluate overall performance by time of day, with differing results by metric. Next, the details of the operation are examined with the use of two visualization tools: a cyclic time-space diagram (TSD) and an empirical platoon progression diagram (PPD). Comparing flow visualizations developed with different included O-D paths reveals several features, such as the presence of secondary and tertiary platoons on certain sections that cannot be seen when only end-to-end journeys are included. In addition, speed heat maps are generated, providing both speed performance along the corridor and locations and the extent of the queue. The proposed visualization tools portray the corridor’s performance holistically instead of combining individual signal performance metrics. The techniques exhibited in this study are compelling for identifying locations where engineering solutions such as access management or timing plan change are required. The recent progress in infrastructure-free sensing technology has significantly increased the scope of CV data-based traffic management systems, enhancing the significance of this study. The study demonstrates the utility of CV trajectory data for obtaining high-level details of the corridor performance as well as drilling down into the minute specifics.展开更多
文摘This study presents results from sentiment analysis of Dynamic message sign (DMS) message content, focusing on messages that include numbers of road fatalities. As a traffic management tool, DMS plays a role in influencing driver behavior and assisting transportation agencies in achieving safe and efficient traffic movement. However, the psychological and behavioral effects of displaying fatality numbers on DMS remain poorly understood;hence, it is important to know the potential impacts of displaying such messages. The Iowa Department of Transportation displays the number of fatalities on a first screen, followed by a supplemental message hoping to promote safe driving;an example is “19 TRAFFIC DEATHS THIS YEAR IF YOU HAVE A SUPER BOWL DON’T DRIVE HIGH.” We employ natural language processing to decode the sentiment and undertone of the supplementary message and investigate how they influence driving speeds. According to the results of a mixed effect model, drivers reduced speeds marginally upon encountering DMS fatality text with a positive sentiment with a neutral undertone. This category had the largest associated amount of speed reduction, while messages with negative sentiment with a negative undertone had the second largest amount of speed reduction, greater than other combinations, including positive sentiment with a positive undertone.
文摘This study investigates relationships between congestion and travel time performance metrics and crashes on road segments. The study focuses on work zone routes in Iowa, utilizing 2021 commercially-available probe vehicle data and crash data. Travel time performance metrics were derived from the probe vehicle data, and crash counts were obtained from the crash data. Additional variables included road characteristics (traffic volume, road type, segment length) and a categorical variable for the presence of a work zone. A mixed effect linear regression model was employed to identify relationships between road segment crash counts and the selected performance metrics. This was accomplished for two sets of models that include congestion performance measures at different defining threshold values, along with travel time performance measures. The study results indicate that the congestion indicators, certain travel time performance measures, and traffic counts were statistically significant and positively correlated with crash counts. Indicator variables for rural interstate locations and non-active work zones have a stronger influence on crash count than those for municipal interstate locations and active work zones. These findings can inform decision-makers on work zone safety strategies and crash mitigation planning, especially in high traffic volume areas prone to congestion and queues.
文摘There are over four million miles of two-lane roadways across the United States, of which a substantial portion is low-volume roads (LVR). Traditionally, most traffic safety efforts and countermeasures focus on high-volume high-crash urban locations. This is because LVRs cover an extensive area, and the rarity of crashes makes it challenging to use crash data to monitor the safety performance of LVRs regularly. In addition, obtaining up-to-date roadway information, such as pavement or shoulder conditions of an extensive LVR network, can be exceptionally difficult. In recent times, crowdsourced hard-acceleration and braking event data have become commercially available, which can provide precise geolocation information and can be readily acquired from different vendors. The present paper examines the potential use of this data to identify opportunities to monitor the safety of LVRs. This research examined approximately 12 million hard-acceleration and hard-braking events over a 3-months period and 26,743 crashes, including 9373 fatal injuries over the past 5-year period. The study found a moderate correlation between hard acceleration/hard-braking events with historical crash events. This study conducted a hot spot analysis using hard-acceleration/hard-braking and crash datasets. Hotspot analysis detected spatial clusters of high-risk crash locations and detected 848 common high-risk sites. Finally, this paper proposes a combined ranking scheme that simultaneously considers historical crash events and hard-acceleration/hard-braking events. The research concludes by suggesting that agencies can potentially use the hard-acceleration and hard-braking event dataset along with the historical crash dataset to effectively supervise the safety performance of the vast network of LVRs more frequently.
文摘Emerging connected vehicle (CV) data sets have recently become commercially available, enabling analysts to develop a variety of powerful performance measures without deploying any field infrastructure. This paper presents several tools using CV data to evaluate traffic progression quality along a signalized corridor. These include both performance measures for high-level analysis as well as visualizations to examine details of the coordinated operation. With the use of CV data, it is possible to assess not only the movement of traffic on the corridor but also to consider its origin-destination (O-D) path through the corridor. Results for the real-world operation of an eight-intersection signalized arterial are presented. A series of high-level performance measures are used to evaluate overall performance by time of day, with differing results by metric. Next, the details of the operation are examined with the use of two visualization tools: a cyclic time-space diagram (TSD) and an empirical platoon progression diagram (PPD). Comparing flow visualizations developed with different included O-D paths reveals several features, such as the presence of secondary and tertiary platoons on certain sections that cannot be seen when only end-to-end journeys are included. In addition, speed heat maps are generated, providing both speed performance along the corridor and locations and the extent of the queue. The proposed visualization tools portray the corridor’s performance holistically instead of combining individual signal performance metrics. The techniques exhibited in this study are compelling for identifying locations where engineering solutions such as access management or timing plan change are required. The recent progress in infrastructure-free sensing technology has significantly increased the scope of CV data-based traffic management systems, enhancing the significance of this study. The study demonstrates the utility of CV trajectory data for obtaining high-level details of the corridor performance as well as drilling down into the minute specifics.
