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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

The Effect Of Infrastructure Changes On Railway Operations., Martin J.R. Schmidt 1966- Dec 2014

The Effect Of Infrastructure Changes On Railway Operations., Martin J.R. Schmidt 1966-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper makes use of standard simulation programs in combination with the tools of applied statistics to simulate railway operations. The purpose of the use of this tool is to evaluate and compare different possible kinds of railway infrastructure, like different types of signaling procedures, different network configuration or operational procedures. A railway system is a logistic network and because of the demand for improved railway operation, much work has been undertaken lately in this scientific field. However the author postulates the hypothesis based on a literature review that in a lot of these works there is a lack of …


Urban Expressway Safety And Efficiency Evaluation And Improvement Using Big Data, Qi Shi Jan 2014

Urban Expressway Safety And Efficiency Evaluation And Improvement Using Big Data, Qi Shi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In an age of data explosion, almost every aspect of social activities is impacted by the abundance of information. The information, characterized by alarming volume, velocity and variety, is often referred to as "Big Data". As one fundamental elements of human life, transportation also confronts the promises and challenges brought about by the Big Data era. Big Data in the transportation arena, enabled by the rapid popularization of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in the past few decades, are often collected continuously from different sources over vast geographical scale. Huge in size and rich in information, the seemingly disorganized data could …


An Analysis Of The Protected-Permitted Left Turn At Intersections With A Varying Number Of Opposing Through Lanes, Alexander Navarro Jan 2014

An Analysis Of The Protected-Permitted Left Turn At Intersections With A Varying Number Of Opposing Through Lanes, Alexander Navarro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Flashing Yellow Arrow Left Turn signal is quickly becoming prominent in Central Florida as a new method of handling left turns at traffic signals. While the concept of a protected-permitted left turn is not groundbreaking, the departure from the typical display of a five-section signal head is, for this type of operation. The signal head introduced is a four-section head with a flashing yellow arrow between the yellow and green arrows. With this signal head quickly becoming the standard, there is a need to re-evaluate the operational characteristics of the left turning vehicle and advance the knowledge of the …


Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Conversion Of Traditional Five Section Head Signal To Flashing Yellow Arrow (Fya) Signal, Meshal Almoshaogeh Jan 2014

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Conversion Of Traditional Five Section Head Signal To Flashing Yellow Arrow (Fya) Signal, Meshal Almoshaogeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, there are two schemes of operating traffic signal controls for permitted protected left turns (PPLT) namely the traditional five-section head system (known as Dog-House) and the flashing yellow arrow system (FYA). Past studies have agreed that these controls lead to decrease the average delay per left turn vehicle, decrease the protected green time, increase the left turn capacity, and enhance the intersection overall operation. The flashing yellow arrow (FYA) has been approved by the Federal Highway Administration as the national standard for the PPLT operations at signalized intersections. So, the Florida Department of Transportation also approved …


A Comparative Analysis Of Different Dilemma Zone Countermeasures At Signalized Intersections Based On Cellular Automaton Model, Yina Wu Jan 2014

A Comparative Analysis Of Different Dilemma Zone Countermeasures At Signalized Intersections Based On Cellular Automaton Model, Yina Wu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, intersections are among the most frequent locations for crashes. One of the major problems at signalized intersection is the dilemma zone, which is caused by false driver behavior during the yellow interval. This research evaluated driver behavior during the yellow interval at signalized intersections and compared different dilemma zone countermeasures. The study was conducted through four stages. First, the driver behavior during the yellow interval were collected and analyzed. Eight variables, which are related to risky situations, are considered. The impact factors of drivers' stop/go decisions and the presence of the red-light running (RLR) violations were …


Safety Effectiveness Of Conversion Of Two-Way-Left-Turn Lanes Into Raised Medians, Saif Alarifi Jan 2014

Safety Effectiveness Of Conversion Of Two-Way-Left-Turn Lanes Into Raised Medians, Saif Alarifi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two way left turn lanes (TWLTL) and raised medians are common median treatments on roadways. This research focused on evaluating the safety effectiveness of conversion of TWLTLs into raised medians using Before-After and Cross Sectional Studies. In the Before-After Studies, we evaluated the effect of this treatment using the Naive, Before-After with Comparison Group (CG), and Before-After with Empirical Bayes (EB) Methods. In order to apply these methods, a total of 33 segments of a treated group and 109 segments of a comparison group have been collected. Also, safety performance functions (SPFs) have been developed using the negative binomial model …


Analysis Of Taxi Drivers' Driving Behavior Based On A Driving Simulator Experiment, Jiawei Wu Jan 2014

Analysis Of Taxi Drivers' Driving Behavior Based On A Driving Simulator Experiment, Jiawei Wu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to comfort, convenience, and flexibility, taxis become more and more prevalent in China, especially in large cities. According to a survey reported by Beijing Traffic Development Research Center, there were 696 million taxi person-rides in Beijing in 2011. However, many violations and road crashes that were related to taxi drivers occurred more frequently. The survey showed that there were a total of 17,242 taxi violations happened in Beijing in only one month in 2003, which accounted for 56% of all drivers' violations. Besides, taxi drivers also had a larger accident rate than other drivers, which showed that nearly 20% …


Applications Of Transit Signal Priority Technology For Transit Service, Frank Anthony Consoli Jan 2014

Applications Of Transit Signal Priority Technology For Transit Service, Frank Anthony Consoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research demonstrated the effectiveness of Transit Signal Priority (TSP) in improving bus corridor travel time in a simulated environment using real world data. TSP is a technology that provides preferential treatment to buses at signalized intersections. By considering different scenarios of activating bus signal priority when a bus is 3 or 5 minutes behind schedule, it was demonstrated that bus travel times improved significantly while there is little effect on delays for crossing street traffic. The case of providing signal priority for buses unconditionally resulted in significant crossing street delays for some signalized intersections with only minor improvement to …