Engineering Commons^™

Development And Application Of A Safety Index For Transit Stops: A Case Study From Las Vegas, Nevada, Rithesh Shivuni

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research developed a methodology to evaluate safety proximate to transit stops through a Safety Index, identified key factors associated with fatal crashes proximate to bus transit stops, and illustrated the applications of these using a case study based on the Las Vegas metropolitan area in Nevada, USA. The methodology is based on motor vehicle crashes that involve pedestrians recorded in the proximity of transit stops, and the severity of the crash outcomes. It focused on crashes which involved pedestrians that occurred within walking distances of individual transit stops. The severity of the crash outcomes was classified based on the …

Improving Pedestrian Safety With The Implementation Of The Demand-Responsive Transverse Rumble Strip As A New Traffic Safety Countermeasure, Md Shakhawat Hossen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The traditional TRS has been extensively used as a traffic calming device to provide cognitive alerts in the form of sound and vibration to drivers. However, TRS always remains fixed on the road and thus exerts cognitive alerts, irrespective of any potential downstream hazards. Moreover, the continuous exposure to rumble strips has been identified as a source of discomfort and annoyance for drivers, which limits its application to potentially useful scenarios. This study explores a rumble strip design with dynamic behavior named as Demand-Responsive Transverse Rumble Strip (DRTRS) in order to address the limitations of static TRS. The study incorporates …

Sizing A New Bike Sharing System For The University Of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nesley Orochena

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The strategic planning objectives for a novel Bike Sharing Systems (BSS) are to locate the BSS stations, size the stations, and determine the bicycle fleet size, among others. Current guidelines to design BSS programs are tailored to city centers with large coverage areas and high bicycle to population ratios, and thus not directly transferable to a university setting. An ordered probit model was created using data from a university online stated preference survey to determine the key factors that affect the uptake rates for the UNLV BSS program and to estimate the potential demand. The demand analysis was incorporated into …

Modeling Driver-Pedestrian-Infrastructure Interactions At Signalized Midblock Crosswalks, Boniphace Kutela

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Cities and metropolitan areas are increasingly facilitating pedestrians’ movement by the provision of pedestrian walking facilities. As pedestrian traffic increases, the risk of crash involvement increases, especially at midblock locations, where pedestrians are exposed to unsafe interactions with vehicular traffic. To improve pedestrians’ safety at midblock locations, various countermeasures are provided, which include signalized crosswalks. Several studies have analyzed driver-pedestrian interactions, as well as pedestrian-infrastructure interactions at signalized midblock crosswalks. However, more in-depth studies are necessary, due to shortfalls of study assumptions, which have led to the application of improper statistical models, as seen in the literature. Improved models are …

A Business Intelligence Framework For Network-Level Traffic Safety Analyses, Naveen Kumar Veeramisti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Currently, there are both methodological and practical barriers that together preclude a substantial use of theoretically sound approaches, such as the ones recommended by the Highway Safety Manual (HSM), for traffic safety management. Although the state-of-the-art provides theoretically sound approaches such as the Empirical Bayes method, there are still various important capabilities missing. Methodological barriers include among others (i) lack of a theoretically sound approach for corridor-level network screening, (ii) lack of a comprehensive approach for estimation of Safety Performance Functions based on a simultaneous consideration of both crash patterns and associated explanatory variables, and (iii) lack of theoretically sound …

Safety Analysis Of Freeway Segments With Unobserved Heterogeneity And Second Order Spatial Effects, Eneliko Mujuni Mulokozi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Safety analysis of freeway networks entails the quantification of crash frequency influencing factors which include roadway and traffic characteristics, environmental factors as well as human factors. This quantification can be used to detect locations with large impacts on the occurrence of crashes which in turn assist engineers and planners to improve safety levels of the network. Roadway characteristics are comprised of the physical elements of the road geometry such as section length, median and right shoulders, speed-exchange lanes, the number of main facility as well as geometry of the entrance from and exit to the main freeway facility. Traffic characteristics …

Robust Observability, Control, & Economics Of Complex Cyber-Physical Networks, Shaurya Agarwal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation deals with various aspects of cyber-physical system. As an example of cyber physical systems, we take transportation networks and solve various problems, namely: 1) Network Observability Problem, 2) Network Control Problem, and 3) Network Economics Problem. We have divided the dissertation into three parts which solve these three problems separately. First part of the dissertation presents a novel approach for studying the observability problem on a general network topology of a traffic network. We develop a new framework which investigates observability in terms of flow information on arcs and the routing information. Second part of the dissertation presents …

A Comparative Study: Utilizing Data Mining Techniques To Classify Traffic Congestion Status, Abbas Mirakhorli

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Performance measure is a process of evaluating and quantifying a system. Performance measure provides us with information about how good a system is working and how well the predefined goals are met. In order to analyze the performance of a transportation system, the traffic data such as speed, volume, occupancy and travel time of the system need to be collected. These data will generate valuable historical database that can be used to develop models to improve the quality of service of transportation system. The performance measures in transportation studies can be categorized to following main groups: Congestion, Mobility, Accessibility, Reliability, …

Observability In Traffic Modeling: Eulerian And Lagrangian Coordinates, Sergio Contreras

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traditionally, one of the ways traffic flow has been studied is by using the kinematic wave model. This model is studied in the Eulerian framework. Recently, the kinematic wave model has been transformed into Lagrangian coordinates. This model of traffic flow together with the concept of observability for linear time invariant discrete time systems is applied to study the observability of four sections of a freeway in both Eulerian and Lagrangian coordinates. A system with densities in four sections of a freeway is designed, and the observability of the system is studied with different situations for sensors. When the system …

Highway Routine Maintenance Cost Estimation For Nevada, Monika Hagood

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

State highway agencies are obligated to maintain existing roads for the highway systems to work efficiently and with greater longevity. Every year NDOT is responsible for approximately 13,150 lane miles of existing infrastructure. With that in mind, resources need to be provided to maintain the highway system.

The purpose of this research was to estimate annual routine maintenance cost for several typical treatment methods of highways. Five prioritization categories of highways used by NDOT were considered. Linear regression models were developed that present the relationship between costs including total maintenance cost and five maintenance cost components: labor, equipment, materials, manpower …

Simultaneous Equation Modeling For Crash Rate Of Freeway Segments, Anthony Ramos

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2010, the total number of reported traffic crashes in the state of Nevada was 51,664 of which 235 (0.6%) resulted in one or more deaths (Nevada Department of Transportation, 2012). The state's "Zero Fatalities" traffic safety campaign aims to reduce the rate even further. Out of the total number of crashes, Clark County (includes Las Vegas) accounted for 78.89%. This study examines safety improvement by developing advanced crash prediction models. The system of crash prediction equations consider geometric conditions and traffic volume using simultaneous equation modeling (SEM). The models are based on geometric characteristics and traffic volume data collected …

Performance Measure For Transportation Network: A Study In Travel Time Dynamics, Anuj Nayyar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Arterial Performance Measurement and Monitoring is one of the leading goals of any transportation agency. The complexity of the differences between performance measures is highlighted and the various data collection methodologies are highlighted. A major performance measure that impacts end users and traffic planners is travel time. This study presents defining a mathematical system for modeling travel time. The modeling in real-time is presented and methods are proposed to evaluate it using vehicle trajectories. Also comparative results are presented between the actual sensor data sets and simulated data to study the effectiveness of the system developed.

Study Of Seat-Belt Usage In Nevada & Driver's Performance, Atul Sancheti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), motor vehicle incidents has been reported to be the leading cause of the accidental deaths in the United States accounting for more than 42,000 deaths every year. Distracted driving and Driving under influence (DUI) are the major contributors to these roadway crashes. Moreover, drivers fatigue and drowsiness behind the wheel is another important factor contributing to the high fatality rate. These factors results in significant decline in the driver's abilities of perception, recognition and vehicle control.

It has also been reported by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that about 292,471 …

Performance Comparison Of Design-Build And Construction Manager/General Contractor Highway Projects, Binita Shakya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Researchers have conducted numerous studies comparing project performance of design-bid-build (DBB) and design-build (DB) highway projects. However, little research has been done to compare the performance of DB and construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC) highway projects. Therefore, an exploratory study was conducted to compare the performance of 55 DB and 34 CM/GC highway projects from various States Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in terms of cost, change orders, and construction intensity. The results showed that contract award cost growth was significantly lower in DB projects than in CM/GC projects. In contrast to this, the total cost growth of DB projects was higher …

Calibration Of Microscopic Traffic Flow Models Considering All Parameters Simultaneously, Victor Hugo Molano Paz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study proposes a methodology to calibrate microscopic traffic flow simulation models. The proposed methodology has the capability to calibrate simultaneously all the calibration parameters as well as demand patterns for any network topology. These parameters include global and local parameters as well as driver behavior and vehicle performance parameters; all based on multiple performance measures, such as link counts and speeds. Demand patterns are included in the calibration framework in terms of turning volumes.

A Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (SPSA) algorithm is proposed to search for the vector of the model‟s parameters that minimizes the difference between actual and …

An End To End V.M.T Framework With Controlled V.M.T Tax Rate Using Optimal Feedback Control Technique, Pratik Verma

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Vehicle Mile Travel (VMT) is a study related to available alternatives for the road

revenue collection system. As per the demand, the existing Gas/Fuel tax based revenue

collection system is not found an appropriate option in the longer run. Due

to existing system constraints like: no eective tax process for vehicles based on alternative

fuel (e.g. electric vehicles), no eective changes in tax due to economical

ination, and more highway expenditure than generated revenue, an alternative revenue

collection mechanism is required. Hence, the objective is to study an alternative

option in detail, which can address the gaps between required revenue …

Investigation Of Crashes And Identifying The Best Practices For Setting Up Speed Zones In Towns Along Rural Highways In Nevada, Krishna Prasad Shrestha

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2010, 51,664 crashes occurred in Nevada. Only about 9% of those crashes occurred in rural areas of the state. However, if only fatal crashes are considered, 41% of those fatal crashes occurred in rural areas. Generally, speed zones are provided in towns along rural highways to reduce speed-related crashes. However, a guideline is necessary for a consistent procedure to setup speed zones throughout the state. The main objectives of this study are to determine factors associated with crashes and to identify the best practices for setting up speed zones in towns along rural highways.

Eleven towns along rural highways …

Traffic Modeling In Lagrangian Coordinates Using Smartphone Apps, Sergio Contreras

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traditionally, one of the ways traffic flow has been studied is by using the kinematic wave model. This model is derived in the Eulerian framework by using conservation of the number of vehicles. Recently, the kinematic wave model has been transformed into Lagrangian coordinates. In this framework, the independent variables are unique

vehicles and time. The detailed change in framework, and the properties of the model in the changed framework are reviewed. Numerical results from different traffic cases are explained. Since vehicle trajectory data can be easily collected from smartphones,

a smartphone application is developed for this purpose. This data …

Development Of A Simulation Tool For Analysis Of Freeway Crashes Due To Cell Phone Usage, Sourabh Sriom

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research shows that drivers are susceptible to numerous distractions while driving which can be held responsible as the reason of a crash. Usage of cell phones, i.e. talking or texting while driving is considered one of the prominent distractions which causes a crash. This dissertation aims to study the number of crashes occurring on the freeways and their relation with the drivers of these cars using cell phones while they are driving. Since crashes occur relatively less frequently, the study of crashes is done using what is called the "rare event" theory. Java based simulations are done to model a …

Traffic Safety: Modeling, Analysis And Visualization, Puneet Lakhanpal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traffic Safety has always been one of the major issues of concern in United States. Every year, stringent efforts are made by the national agencies and safety offices to uplift the traffic safety standards and build systems which can guide them in policy making, reducing crashes and routing the financial resources in an optimal direction. This thesis studies the traffic safety from three different angles: modeling, analysis and visualization. In the beginning, these three components are explored in the domain of Injury Severity. Later on, the focus is shifted towards the Traffic Safety related to Safety Belts. Factors and models …

Analysis And Evaluation Of Safety Impacts Of Median Types And Midblock Left Turn Treatments For Urban Arterials, Timur Mauga

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Urban growth leads to new land-uses abutting arterials requiring driveways for their accessibility. Uncontrolled number and locations of such access points causes safety, mobility and accessibility problems. The solution to these problems is access management (AM) which controls the number and location of the access points. AM techniques are normally documented in the form of guidelines for engineers and planners to follow when implementing the techniques. However, AM guidelines may not cover every technique due to the fact that AM is still growing. For example, the current AM guideline prepared by The Nevada Department of Transportation addresses many AM techniques. …

Evaluation Of Video Based Pedestrian And Vehicle Detection Algorithms, Varun Bandarupalli

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Video based detection systems rely on the ability to detect moving objects in video streams. Video based detection systems have applications in many fields like, intelligent transportation, automated surveillance etc. There are many approaches adopted for video based detection. Evaluation and selecting a suitable approach for pedestrian and vehicle detection is a challenging task. While evaluating the object detection algorithms, many factors should be considered in order to cope with unconstrained environments, non stationary background, different object motion patterns and the variation in types of object being detected.

In this thesis, we implement and evaluate different video based detection algorithms …

Evaluation Of Safety Impact Of Access Management In Urban Areas, Xuecai Xu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The access provided by streets and highways to adjacent lands are managed by controlling the spacings between the access points including signals, driveways, and media openings on mid-block segments, and setting the limit on the corner clearances around intersections. There have been studies on evaluating the impact of access management techniques on safety and mobility in urban areas. Samples of mid-block segments and intersections can be collected from selected arterials. Because the mid-block segments or intersections in the same arterials share the same missing information, safety and mobility on them show unique features that should be taken into account when …

Statistical Modeling And Analysis Of Injury Severity Sustained By Occupants Of Passenger Vehicles Involved In Crashes With Large Trucks, Ahmad Koupaenejad

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Crashes are the result of complex interactions between several factors representing driver, roadway, vehicle, and environmental characteristics. Understanding to what degree each factor contributes to the severity of a crash is not a simple task. The outcomes of crashes in the US have been an average of 42,000 deaths and 3 million injuries per year. To better understand the role of significant contributors to crashes, three sets of models using multinomial logit and one using ordered probit were calibrated. To calibrate these models, forty two independent predictor variables including driver/occupants characteristics, crash environment at the crash location, crash characteristics, and …