Exploring Crowdsourced Hard—Acceleration and Braking Event Data for Evaluating Safety Performance of Low-Volume Rural Highways in Iowa

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.

Do rural highways narrow Chinese farmers'income gap among provinces?

To achieve complete poverty alleviation,the improvement of infrastructure and living conditions is fundamental.Promoting the flow of factors through infrastructure investment,thereby reducing the income gap among residents,has become an important focus of poverty alleviation.Because of the high amount of investment in transportation infrastructure,greater attention has been paid to the income distribution effect it brings,but few studies have analysed the effect of rural highways on the income gap of farmers.Based on the panel data pertaining to 30 provinces in China from 1993 to 2013,this paper uses a fixed-effect model to test the impact of rural highways supply on the income gap of farmers.The empirical results show that:(1)The effect of Chinese rural highways on the farmers'income gap among provinces is"U-shaped".(2)Chinese national and provincial trunk highways are helpful in narrowing the farmers'income gap among provinces.(3)The level of education,household productive fixed assets investment,level of urbanization,and level of regional economic development have multiple effects on the farmers'income gap among provinces.Then,based on the empirical analysis,the paper analyzes the mechanism of rural highways affecting the income gap of farmers from a theoretical perspective and focuses on the causes of the"U-shaped"relationship between rural highways supply and farmers'income gap.

Analytical method of minimum spacing of signalized intersections on bidirectional two-lane highways

In order to improve the smoothness of traffic flow on bidirectional two-lane highways, an analytical method is proposed to optimize the minimum spacing of the signalized intersections. The minimum signal spacing is determined by two parts, including the necessary distance for stabilizing the traffic flow after it passes through the signalized intersections and the length of the upstream functional area of intersection. For the former, based on the platoon dispersion theory, the stable distance determination problem of traffic flow is studied and a model of dispersion degrees varying with the distance from the upstream intersection is presented, in which the time headway is intended to yield the shifted negative exponential distribution. The parameters of the model for medal and collector highways are estimated respectively based on the field data. Then, the section at which the slope of dispersion degree curve equals -0.1 is regarded as the beginning of the dispersion stable state. The length of the intersection upstream functional area is determined by three parts, including the distance traveled during perception-reaction time, the distance traveled while a driver decelerates to a stop, and the queue storage length. Based on the above procedures, the minimum signal spacing of each highway category is proposed.

GIS-Based Methodology for Crash Prediction on Single-Lane Rural Highways

Due to the need to update the current guidelines for highway design to focus on safety, this study sought to build an accident prediction model using a Geographic Information System (GIS) for single-lane rural highways, with a minimum of statistically significant variables, adequate to the Brazilian reality, and improve accident prediction for places with similar characteristics. A database was created to associate the accident records with the geometric parameters of the highway and to fill in the gaps left by the absence of geometric highway plans through geometric reconstitution or semi-automatic extraction of highways using satellite images. The Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) method was applied to estimate the coefficients of the model, assuming negative distribution of the binomial error for the count of observed accidents. The accident frequency and annual average daily traffic (AADT) were analyzed, along with the spatial and geometric characteristics of 215 km of federal single-lane rural highways between 2007 and 2016. The GEE procedure was applied to two models having three variations of distinct homogeneous segmentation, two based on segments and one based on the kernel density estimator. To assess the effect of constant traffic, two more variations of the models using AADT as an offset variable were considered. The predominant correlation structure in the models was the exchangeable. The principal contributing factors for the occurrence of collisions were the radius of the horizontal curve, the grade, segment length, and the AADT. The study produced clear indicators for the design parameters of roadways that influence the safety performance of rural highways.

Crash Severity Modeling in Urban Highways Using Backward Regression Method

Identifying and classifying intersections according to severity is very important problem for implementation of safety related counter measures and effective models are needed to compare and assess the severity. Highway safety organizations have considered intersection safety among their priorities. In spite of significant advances in highways safety, the large numbers of crashes with high severities still occur in the highways. Investigation of influential factors on crashes enables engineers to carry out calculations in order to reduce crash severity. In the previous studies, there are no perfect models which are capable to illustrate the influence of human factors, road, vehicle, weather conditions and traffic features including traffic volume and flow speed on the crash severity. Therefore, this paper is aimed to develop the models for illustration of the simultaneous influence of these variables on the crash severity in urban highways. The models represented in this study have been developed using binary Logit Models. SPSS software has been used to calibrate the models. It must be mentioned that backward regression method in SPSS was used to identify the significant variables in the model. Consider to obtained results it can be concluded that the main factor in increasing of crash severity in urban highways are driver age, movement with reverse gear, technical defect of the vehicle, vehicle collision with motorcycle and bicycle, bridge, frontal impact collisions, frontal-lateral collisions and multi-vehicle crashes in urban highways which always increase the crash severity in urban highways. Obtained results show the effectiveness and capability of the developed models.

AIR ROUTES,RAILWAYS AND HIGHWAYS

Since the launch of the reform and openingin China, the civil aviation service inJiangsu Province has been developed. ByJune 1996, nine airports scattered across theprovince in Nanjing Dajiaochang, WuxiShuofang, Changzhou Benniu, Nantong Xing-dong and Rugao, Lianyungang Baitapu,Xuzhou Daguozhuang and Yancheng andSuzhou Guangfu have opened services tothe public. Apart from Yancheng

Expansion of Financial Channel for the Construction of China's Highways

China’s highways started at a low level in facilities. In 1949, the total mileage of the whole coun-try’s highways was only 80,000 km, with a density of 0.001 km/sq km. Following the founding of New China, especially since the 1980s, great changes have taken place in the facilities of China’s highways. By the end of 1995, the

Should the Toll Period for Highways Be Extended?

In July, the government unveiled a draft for public opinion, proposing to amend the highway toll management regulation. The revised regulation aims to extend tolls on governmentfunded highways.

Risk Assessment of Highways Affected by Debris Flows in Wenchuan Earthquake Area

Since the Wenchuan earthquake in China on May 12th, 2008, highways in earthquake-affected areas have been frequently interrupted by debris flows. We analyzed the hazard effect modes and damage processes along highways and developed three key indexes, scale of debris flows, deposits on highways and river blockage, to describe quantitatively the highway disasters. By combining the empirical methods and the actual terrain conditions, we proposed new methods to determine the value of hazard indexes. In addition, we used the economic value and resistance of highway as vulnerability assessment indexes, then determined the specific subindexes for the subgrade, bridges and culverts, and developed a way for the quantified vulnerability zoning. Moreover, we proposed the assessment and mapping methods for highway risk. The risk is described into 5 grades： extremely low risk, low risk, middle risk, high risk and extremely high risk. We applied these methods in a case study carried out on provincial highway S3o3 from Yingxiu Town to Wolong Town, in Wenchuan County. Analysis of debris flow risk for the whole highway, showed that the total length of highway in extremely low risk area was 28.26 km, 4.83 km in low risk area, 8.0 km in middle risk area, 3.65 km in high risk area, and 3.06 km in extremely high risk area. The assessment results are consistent with the field survey data which reflected the disaster situation. This risk method can be used objectively to evaluate the debris-flow risk along highways, and is useful for highway reconstruction in mountainous areas suffering from active debris flows.

Integrated rockfall hazard and risk assessment along highways: An example for Jiuzhaigou area after the 2017 Ms 7.0 Jiuzhaigou earthquake, China

This work addresses the integrated assessment of rockfall(including landslides) hazards and risk for S301, Z120, and Z128 highways, which are important transportation corridors to the world heritage site Jiuzhai Valley National Park in Sichuan, China. The highways are severely threatened by rockfalls or landslide events after the 2017 Ms 7.0 Jiuzhaigou earthquake. Field survey(September 14-18 th, 2017, May 15-20 th, 2018, and September 9-17 th, 2018), unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV), and satellite image identified high-relief rockfalls and road construction rockfalls or landslides along the highway. Rockfall hazard is qualitatively evaluated using block count, velocity, and flying height through a 3D rockfall simulation at local and regional scales. Rockfall risk is quantitatively assessed with rockfall event probability, propagation probability, spatial probability, and vulnerability for different block volume classes. Approximately 21.5%, 20.5%, and 5.3% of the road mileage was found to be subject to an unacceptable(UA) risk class for vehicles along S301, Z120, and Z128 highways, respectively. Approximately 20.1% and 3.3% of the road mileage belong to the UA risk class for tourists along Z120 and Z128 highways, respectively. Results highlighted that high-relief rockfall events were intensively located at K50 to K55(Guanmenzi to Ganheba) and K70 to K72(Jiudaoguai to Shangsizhai Village) road mileages along S301 highway and KZ18 to KZ22(Five Flower Lake to Arrow Bamboo Lake) road mileages, KZ30(Swan Lake to Virgin Forests), and KY10.5 kilometers in Jiuzhai Valley. Rockfalls in these locations were classified under the UA risk class and medium to very high hazard index. Road construction rockfalls were located at K67(Jiuzhai Paradise) and K75–K76 kilometers along S301 highway and KZ12 to KZ14(Rhino Lake to Nuorilang Waterfall), KZ16.5 to KZ17.5(Golden Bell Lake), KY5(Lower Seasonal Lake), and KY14(Upper Seasonal Lake) kilometers along Z120 and Z128 highway in Jiuzhai Valley. Rockfalls in these areas were within a reasonable practicable risk to UA risk class and very low to medium hazard index. Finally, defensive measures, including flexible nets, concrete walls, and artificial tunnels, could be selected appropriately on the basis of the rockfall hazard index and risk class. This study revealed the integration between qualitative rockfall hazard assessment and quantitative rockfall risk assessment, which is crucial in studying rockfall prevention and mitigation.

Ecological impact assessment method of highways in Tibetan Plateau:A Case study of Gonghe-Yushu Expressway

In recent years,the ecological environment along highways in Tibetan Plateau has been severely affected due to the rapid construction of highways.In order to solve the problems of multiple indicators and inconsistent criteria in the ecological impact assessment of highways,and to scientifically screen assessment indicators,the paper proposes a multi-round indicator screening method,which combines literature analysis,expert rating,and statistical analysis.Based on this screening method,normalized difference vegetation index,land surface temperature,elevation,and normalized difference soil index are screened out.Combined with multiple linear regression,an ecological impact assessment model is established and applied to ecological impact assessment of Gonghe-Yushu Expressway.The results show that the expressway construction is the first driving force for the deterioration of the ecological environment along the roadside,and its interference range on the desert grassland ecosystem is greater than that on the agroforestry system.The ecological environment within 150 m on both sides of the expressway should be protected.

Urbanization Effect of Highways in the Pearl River Delta

Based on TM images,ArcGIS and landscape ecology,4 typical roads in the Pearl River Delta are taken for example to analyze infl uence range of highway,and study the laws of highway construction infl uencing landscape patterns by reviewing landscape pattern changes in areas along the highways. According to the research,for Yuebei Section(north Guangdong) of Beijing–Zhuhai Highway,road construction has signifi cant infl uence on landscape patterns of the 300-m wide buffer zone(especially woodland and urban land); for Foshan–Kaiping Highway,road construction has significant influence on landscape patterns of the 1,000-m wide buffer zone(especially woodland and agricultural land); for Dongguan–Shenzhen Highway,road construction has signifi cant infl uence on landscape patterns of the 8,000-m wide buffer zone(especially woodland and urban land).

Measures for the Optimization of Subgrade and Pavement Design in the Reconstruction and Expansion of Highways

In comparison to the construction of modern highway engineering,several of China’s early pavement construction concerns,such as pavement collapse,are rather clear.Limited by historical and technical factors,the subgrade and pavement design for highways lacks scientificity,thus inducing potential safety problems in the operation.In order to comprehensively improve the subgrade and pavement design as well as ensure the quality and safety of highway engineering projects,this paper takes the reconstructed and expanded highway projects as research subjects and focuses on proposing optimization measures for the subgrade and pavement design of reconstructed and expanded highways,so as to provide adequate reference.

Day-to-day traffic user equilibrium model considering influence of intelligent highways and advanced traveler information systems

To explore the influence of intelligent highways and advanced traveler information systems(ATIS)on path choice behavior,a day-to-day(DTD)traffic flow evolution model with information from intelligent highways and ATIS is proposed,whereby the network reliability and experiential learning theory are introduced into the decision process for the travelers’route choice.The intelligent highway serves all the travelers who drive on it,whereas ATIS serves vehicles equipped with information systems.Travelers who drive on intelligent highways or vehicles equipped with ATIS determine their trip routes based on real-time traffic information,whereas other travelers use both the road network conditions from the previous day and historical travel experience to choose a route.Both roadway capacity degradation and travel demand fluctuations are considered to demonstrate the uncertainties in the network.The theory of traffic network flow is developed to build a DTD model considering information from intelligent highway and ATIS.The fixed point theorem is adopted to investigate the equivalence,existence and stability of the proposed DTD model.Numerical examples illustrate that using a high confidence level and weight parameter for the traffic flow reduces the stability of the proposed model.The traffic flow reaches a steady state as travelers’routes shift with repetitive learning of road conditions.The proposed model can be used to formulate scientific traffic organization and diversion schemes during road expansion or reconstruction.

Speed Reduction Mitigation Strategies on Rural Highways at Two-Way Stop Control Intersections and Curves

Studies conducted on crashes at rural intersections of state highways and local roads/streets with two-way stop control have proved that the problem was likely poor judgment by the stopped driver on the minor approach of the speed of an oncoming vehicle and/or safe gap in traffic on the major highway. Several mitigating strategies have been suggested and studied in various studies to improve safety at the two-way stop control rural intersections and at other rural highway segments. There are also several low-cost techniques used, mostly in foreign countries, to slow drivers on major highways as they enter small towns and villages, e.g., narrowing pavement lines, establishing visual gateways, etc. Lowered speeds would decrease crash severity. In this study, four strategies including solar speed display units, mobile speed trailers, optical speed bars, and colored pavement were tested and assessed in some locations in Kansas. The results of this research indicate that both solar speed display units and mobile speed trailers are effective in speed reduction at the desired points, but optical speed bars and colored pavements do not yield reliable results. Additional studies and longer term studies, should be conducted.

Pricing and Permit Loads Impact on Overlay Costs for Highways in Louisiana

A methodology for the evaluation of the economic impact of overweight permitted vehicles hauling agricultural products on state highways is presented in this study. The different gross vehicle weight scenarios that are selected for this investigation range between 80,000 lb. and 100,000 lb. Uniform distribution of axle loads and lumped loads are considered in this study. This study evaluates the proposed higher truck loads and their economic impact to the highways and to the industry. The effects of adapting higher truck loads on the existing highways are evaluated using a deterministic load capacity evaluation as well as a reliability assessment. The target reliability level is derived from AASHTO （American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials） standard design specifications to satisfy safe and adequate performance level. The overlay thickness required to carry traffic from each gross vehicle weight scenario for the overlay design period is determined. Differences in overlay life were calculated for different gross vehicle weight scenarios with uniform and lumped axle loads. The overlay thickness and costs were determined for a twenty year analysis period using statistical methods. The result showed that lumped loads with allowable axle load of 48,000 lb. produce more pavement damage than the current permitted gross vehicle weight for timber trucks with equally loaded axles.

Unit Root Analysis of Traffic Time Series in Toll Highways

Concession contracts in highways often include some kind of clauses （for example, a minimum traffic guarantee） that allow for better management of the business risks. The value of these clauses may be important and should be added to the total value of the concession. However, in these cases, traditional valuation techniques, like the NPV （net present value） of the project, are insufficient. An alternative methodology for the valuation of highway concession is one based on the real options approach. This methodology is generally built on the assumption of the evolution of traffic volume as a GBM （geometric Brownian motion）, which is the hypothesis analyzed in this paper. First, a description of the methodology used for the analysis of the existence of unit roots （i.e., the hypothesis of non-stationarity） is provided. The Dickey-Fuller approach has been used, which is the most common test for this kind of analysis. Then this methodology is applied to perform a statistical analysis of traffic series in Spanish toll highways. For this purpose, data on the AADT （annual average daily traffic） on a set of highways have been used. The period of analysis is around thirty years in most cases. The main outcome of the research is that the hypothesis that traffic volume follows a GBM process in Spanish toll highways cannot be rejected. This result is robust, and therefore it can be used as a starting point for the application of the real options theory to assess toll highway concessions.

Cost and Benefit Evaluation of Graffiti Countermeasures on the Nevada Highways

Nevada is one of the major states that are currently suffering from graffiti problem. It was estimated that graffiti costs Southern Nevada around $30 million per year. The major highway structures that were suffering from graffiti were bridges, sound walls, retaining walls and traffic signs. Removing graffiti from these infrastructures was a big challenge to the maintenance division of Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT). Thus, the department was looking for cost effective proactive countermeasures to prevent graffiti on highway infrastructure. This study first identified a spectrum of proactive countermeasures, and then evaluated them by conducting a cost-benefit analysis. Pedestrian fencing and chain link fence were found to be cost effective countermeasures for preventing graffiti on bridges and sound walls. However, for relative long sound walls, the chain link becomes less cost effective. Rat guard was found to be cost effective for road signs;however, it was more useful for traffic signs that are located in the area where the taggers cannot find the way to bypass the rat guard. Coating and landscaping were found to be cost effective for small structures. The security camera countermeasure was not cost effective at the locations where the reduction in graffiti was small. The software for spectrometers was relatively high cost and might hinder the cost effectiveness of this countermeasure. To reduce the cost of the software, developing the software internally could be adopted. And finally, the electronic database was recommended since it was not difficult to develop and maintain.

Comparison of Traffic Growth Factors in Three Major Highways of Bangladesh： A Case Study

The unanticipated increase in vehicle population and heavy axle loads has brought the road network of Bangladesh to a crumbling stage. The network is grossly short of its structural capacity, highly distressed and has started showing signs of premature failure. The RHD （Roads and Highways Department） of Bangladesh uses 8%-10% growth rate of traffic for structural design of these highways that need to be upgraded due to present high traffic volume demand. An attempt has been made through this case study, by using traffic flow data from different computerized toll plaza established in recent times, to predict traffic growth pattern of different highways of Bangladesh. The toll collectors of different computerized toll plaza have been recording and preserving round-the-year continuous flow data in a systematic manner. The study has taken this prospect of utilizing several years of flow data along Dhaka-Chittagong Highway （N-1）, Dhaka-Sylhet Highway （N-2）, Dhaka-North Bengal Highway （N-5） and found the traffic growth factor of 21.03%, 23.79% and 11.31%, respectively, which is much higher than that transport authority of Bangladesh is currently using. By the use of accurate traffic engineering parameters such as traffic growth factors, it is possible to resist frequent distress of pavement and sustainable pavement management can be implemented by RHD.

Small object detection on highways via balance feature fusion and task-specific encoding network

Detecting small objects on highways is a novel research topic.Due to the small pixel of objects on highways,traditional detectors have difficulty in capturing discriminative features.Additionally,the imbalance of feature fusion methods and the inconsistency between classification and regression tasks lead to poor detection performance on highways.In this paper,we propose a balance feature fusion and task-specific encoding network to address these issues.Specifically,we design a balance feature pyramid network(FPN)to integrate the importance of each layer of feature maps and construct long-range dependencies among them,thereby making the features more discriminative.In addition,we present task-specific decoupled head,which utilizes task-specific encoding to moderate the imbalance between the classification and regression tasks.As demonstrated by extensive experiments and visualizations,our method obtains outstanding detection performance on small object detection on highways(HSOD)dataset and AI-TOD dataset.