Engineering Commons^™

Using Probe Data To Understand The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Roadway Safety, Ennis W. Marshall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic there was an observed decrease in traffic safety in the United Sates. New England was no exception to this, with traffic fatality rates increasing in Maine and Connecticut. This increase was attributed to the possibility that drivers had more opportunities to speed following the implementation of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on roads with drastically reduced volume and decreased speed enforcement. To determine the state of research into the pandemic's effect on traffic safety around the world, an extensive critical review was conducted. The reviewed studies showed that roadways did indeed become less safe with …

Examining The Impact Of Centerline Rumble-Strip Installation In Prevention Of Head-On And Opposite Sideswipe Collisions In Maine, Jhan Kevin Gil Marin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among all traffic collisions, lane departure crashes are the leading type of serious traffic crashes in Maine, comprising 72% of state-wide traffic fatalities. To reduce these crashes, Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) installed shoulder and centerline rumble strips on roadways to prevent lane departure crashes in Maine. With a total installed length of 1503 miles of rumble strips, specifically 511 miles of centerline rumble strips in bidirectional and undivided rural two-lane roadways, there is a need to understand the impact of rumble strips in reducing lane departure crashes. In this thesis, observational before-after studies with two methods: comparison group, and …

Transportation System Performance And Traveler Behavior In The Context Of A Systemwide Shock: Applications Of Data Science Toward A Sustainable Future, A. Latif Patwary

Doctoral Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic, a systemwide shock, has left a long-lasting and significant impact on transportation systems. It has contributed to a shift in travel behavior, with many people turning to work from home (WFH) and online shopping. This shift has led to a reduction in vehicular travel. However, the pandemic witnessed increased crash fatalities despite a reduction in overall crashes, disproportionately affecting disadvantaged communities (DACs). The main question arising from these pandemic-related issues is what we can learn to improve transportation systems and shape future travel behavior. Therefore, this dissertation aims to investigate how the transportation system changed during COVID-19 …

Use Of Machine Learning And Natural Language Processing To Enhance Traffic Safety Analysis, Md Abu Sayed

Theses and Dissertations

Despite significant advances in vehicle technologies, safety data collection and analysis, and engineering advancements, tens of thousands of Americans die every year in motor vehicle crashes. Alarmingly, the trend of fatal and serious injury crashes appears to be heading in the wrong direction. In 2021, the actual rate of fatalities exceeded the predicted rate. This worrisome trend prompts and necessitates the development of advanced and holistic approaches to determining the causes of a crash (particularly fatal and major injuries). These approaches range from analyzing problems from multiple perspectives, utilizing available data sources, and employing the most suitable tools and technologies …

Using Safety Performance Models, Autonomous Vehicle Data, And Machine Learning To Develop Contextual Complexity Criteria To Establish A Standardized Process For On-Road Evaluation Of Medically At-Risk Drivers Considering Static And Dynamic Factors Of The Roadway Environment, Vijay Bendigeri

All Dissertations

The field of transportation engineering has an opportunity to positively impact the medical community, specifically the clinicians who evaluate, train, and rehabilitate at-risk drivers. Driving Rehabilitation Specialists (DRSs) have an essential role in making roads safer for medically-at-risk drivers, their passengers, and other road users. DRSs conduct on-road driving evaluations, which are considered the gold standard to make fitness-to-drive decisions due to their high face validity. Most DRSs use a fixed route, meaning the exact same route is used to evaluate each client. When a DRS develops a fixed route, that clinician identifies characteristics of the roadway they think are …

A Multilevel Study Of Driving Behavior And System Performance- Harnessing Large-Scale Naturalistic Driving And Conventional Safety Data, Amin Mohammadnazar

Doctoral Dissertations

The performance of a transportation system highly depends on the drivers’ behavior because driving behavior is one of the main causes of traffic accidents and one of the key factors in fuel consumption and vehicle emissions studies. Specifically, the focus of this dissertation is on aggressive driving who not only put their selves and others at risk but also contribute more to greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, the development of advanced sensors, connected vehicles (CVs), location-based services (LBS) provided unprecedented access to new high-resolution microscopic-level data which can be used to evaluate and monitor instantaneous driving behavior and safety performance of …

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 …

Modeling Driver Distraction Mechanism And Its Safety Impact In Automated Vehicle Environment., Song Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automated Vehicle (AV) technology expects to enhance driving safety by eliminating human errors. However, driver distraction still exists under automated driving. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has defined six levels of driving automation from Level 0~5. Until achieving Level 5, human drivers are still needed. Therefore, the Human-Vehicle Interaction (HVI) necessarily diverts a driver’s attention away from driving. Existing research mainly focused on quantifying distraction in human-operated vehicles rather than in the AV environment. It causes a lack of knowledge on how AV distraction can be detected, quantified, and understood. Moreover, existing research in exploring AV distraction has mainly …

Understanding The Safety Impacts Of Left-Turn Infrastructure On The Vulnerable Driving Population, Francis Tainter

Doctoral Dissertations

The severe impact of roadway fatalities has remained a significant concern for researchers in recent years. As of 2015, traffic fatalities were the leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 15 and 20 years old and a significant safety concern for drivers over the age of 65 years old (otherwise known as the “vulnerable” driving population). Intersection-related crashes have also remained prevalent in these demographic categories. Through four primary crash data evaluations, this dissertation explores the safety implications on the “vulnerable” driving population in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Through the utilization of newly developed crash data linkage …

Nighttime Pedestrian Fatalities Across The United States And Their Relationship With Built Environment And Socioeconomic Factors: Gis-Based Analysis And Assessment, Amir Tarighi

Civil Engineering ETDs

Fatalities from motor vehicle collisions are the fifth leading cause of years of lost life worldwide (Foreman et al., 2018) and are a great concern for all communities. This road safety crisis has been especially pronounced for U.S. pedestrians over the last decade. National records show that between 2010 and 2019, pedestrian fatalities in the U.S. increased 44% while all other traffic fatalities increased only 4% and more than fifty percent of pedestrian fatalities occurred in dark lighting conditions. This study analyzed the relationship between pedestrian fatality locations at night and five demographic characteristics of those locations including population density, …

Adaptive Uplink Data Rate Prediction And Networkselection In A Vehicular Mobile Channel, Georgi Nikolov

Theses

The rapid acceleration into the digital age brings a worldwide interconnectedness of an unprecedented level. This interconnectedness transforms the modern transportation network by linking its infrastructure components (e.g., signaling systems, traffic control systems, maintenance systems) together. Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) can utilize this newly emerged network infrastructure, improving traffic safety, traffic control, and reducing transportation-related environmental impacts, changing the way drivers, businesses and governments deal with road transport. It is expected that in the near future self-aware vehicles (e.g., trains, cars or trucks) will constitute the majority of the transportation infrastructure. Vehicles need to be able to reliably communicate critical …

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 …

The Passive Effects Of Full-Gateway, In-Street Signs On Vehicular Speed, De'lon Dixon

Masters Theses

Reducing motorist’s speed when approaching crosswalks is an important goal in reducing the number of collision between motorist and pedestrian in crosswalks. The current study addresses this goal. The effect of gateway installation of in-street signs (one in-street sign installed between the two travel lanes in each direction and one on both edges of the roadway in each direction) on vehicle speed was evaluated on nine roads. The results demonstrated that the Gateway in-street sign treatment produced large speed reductions as vehicles approached the crosswalk and at the crosswalk. The average speed reduction was 3.8 mph at the crosswalk and …

All-Red Clearance Intervals For Use In The Left-Turn Application Of Flashing Yellow Arrows, Francis Tainter

Masters Theses

With the advancement of implementation for a novel traffic control device, the Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA), agencies across the country have continually sought strategies to improve intersection operations and safety, specifically with respect to the left-turn application. More so, permissive left-turn intervals have been communicated to drivers using several traffic signal indications; however, most frequently these phases are represented through the circular green (CG) ball and more recently, the FYA. Previous research in this area determined that the FYA indication produced the most effective communication of permissive left-turns. Further, this previous research led to the inclusion of the FYA in …

An Evaluation Of Traffic Control Devices And Driver Distraction On Driver Behavior At Railway-Highway Grade Crossings, Radhameris A. Gomez Gabriel

Doctoral Dissertations

At-grade crossings (grade crossings) are those crossings in which any part of a roadway intersects with railroad tracks. Safety at these railroad-highway grade crossings is a major concern, with traffic control warning devices serving as the main mechanisms for improving safety. There are three factors that influence a driver’s behavior at a given crossing. First, traffic control devices, including warning devices at the railroad-highway grade crossings, provide the driver with information whose impact will depend in part on the likelihood that the driver knows whether to glance in the direction of the device based on prior experience, and in part …

Evaluating The Impacts Of Driver Behavior In The Speed Selection Process And The Related Outcomes, Cole D. Fitzpatrick

Doctoral Dissertations

In the United States, traffic crashes claim the lives of 30,000 people every year and is the leading cause of death for 5-24 year olds. Driver error is the leading factor in over 90 percent of motor vehicle crashes, with the roadway and the vehicle each only accounting for about 2 percent of crashes. In the United States, nearly a third of fatal crashes are due to speeding and therefore, a critical step in improving traffic safety is research aimed to reduce speeding, such as crash data analysis, outreach campaigns, targeted enforcement, and understanding speed selection. In this dissertation, a …

Safety Benefit Analysis Of Alternative Delineation Practices In Michigan, Brenda C. Burdick

Masters Theses

Among the many aspects of roadway design, one important system is roadway delineation. The main purposes of roadway delineation include regulating, warning, and guiding drivers in a safe manner. Delineation systems have the potential to reduce crashes. This research sought to perform safety benefit analysis of roadway delineation practices in Michigan. Through literature review, several delineation practices, selection criteria, and previously developed crash modification factors were researched. Even though several pavement marking materials have been implemented in Michigan, a safety benefit analysis of various materials had not been performed. Sites were selected, and pavement marking material inventory data were combined …

Investigating The Relationship Between Latent Driving Patterns And Traffic Safety Using Smartphone-Based Mobile Sensor Data, Kenneth Wynne

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Crash frequency modelling has been used in the past as an attempt to quantify the expected number of crashes occurring on a certain segment of roadway given a set of variables and factors describing the roadway segment and the traffic along that segment. These models are referred to as the Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) in the Highway Safety Manual (HSM). In past studies, these SPFs have focused primarily on roadway geometric information along with limited traffic exposure data such as traffic volume. Alternate data sources for probe vehicle data are increasingly available and this research sought to exploit this new …

Traffic Conflict Analysis Under Fog Conditions Using Computer Simulation, Binya Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The weather condition is a crucial influence factor on road safety issues. Fog is one of the most noticeable weather conditions, which has a significant impact on traffic safety. Such condition reduces the road's visibility and consequently can affect drivers' vision, perception, and judgments. The statistical data shows that many crashes are directly or indirectly caused by the low-visibility weather condition. Hence, it is necessary for road traffic engineers to study the relationship of road traffic accidents and their influence factors. Among these factors, the traffic volume and the speed limits in poor visibility areas are the primary reasons that …

A Microsimulation Of Novel Intersection Designs, Aman Kinfemichael Woldetinsae

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

The focus of this project is to see how a turbo roundabout and a protected intersection designs behave when they are applied on two study sites in Portland, OR. PTV VISSM is used to model, analyze and compare the performances of these designs with the existing intersection. In addition, the best features of the protected intersection and the turbo roundabout were combined to create a new intersection design that is safer for the bicyclists and also performs better than the existing intersection.

The analysis is conducted for five different volume scenarios for both the study sites. The results of the …

Development Of A Visualization System For Highway Safety Management Using Safety Analyst, Indira Khanal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The AASHTOWare software, Safety Analyst, is a state-of-the-art tool with significant capabilities and advanced analytical methods for comprehensive analysis and management of highway safety. However, currently, this tool provides very limited visualization capabilities. To address this limitation, this study proposes a Visualization System for Safety Analyst that provides graphical displays, including location and color-coded information for each module. In addition, the system generates charts, which have various degrees of resolution and aggregation; tables; and a report summarizing safety performance measures. The system can use Google Maps and/or ESRI ArcGIS to generate the graphical displays. The advantage of using Google Maps …

Modeling Of Short Term And Long Term Impacts Of Freeway Traffic Incidents Using Historical Data, Vidhya Kumaresan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traffic incidents are major contributors to non-recurring traffic congestion in most urban areas in United States. In addition to losses in terms of injury and property damage, freeway incidents also produce negative effects on the system including increased travel delays, fuel consumption and vehicle emissions. Incident management strategies are aimed at reducing the impacts caused by such incidents. Development of guidelines or models to quantify the impacts of these incidents on the society can aid in analyzing the effectiveness and economic feasibility of such incident management strategies.

The first objective of this study is to calibrate models that relate the …

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 …

Evaluation Of Truck Signal Priority At N Columbia Blvd And Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd Intersection: Vissim Micro Simulation Analysis Of Truck Signal Priority, Maisha Mahmud

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Given the importance of over growing freight transportation system worldwide, engineers and planners are faced with the challenge of improving freight service in urban area using low cost measure. Truck Signal Priority is one of the strategy that can be used to improve operational efficiency with enhance safety benefits (red light running) of freight service, without major capital investment. In light to this interest this study focus on evaluating the impacts of freight signal priority on a high truck density intersection like N Columbia Blvd and NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Using a simulation tool, VISSIM, these impacts were …

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 …

Use Of A Gateway In-Street Sign Treatment To Increase Yielding To Pedestrians At Crosswalks, Miles K. Bennett

Masters Theses

An important goal to reduce the number of collisions between motorists and pedestrians is to increase motorist’s yielding right-of-way to pedestrians in crosswalks. The current study addresses this goal. A Gateway installation of instreet signs (one in-street sign installed between the two travel lanes in each direction and one on both edges of the roadway in each direction) was evaluated on multilane roads. The first experiment compared the efficacy of adding multiple in-street signs used in a gateway configuration with a single sign between the two travel lanes in each direction. The second experiment compared the in-street sign gateway treatment …

An Investigation Of Pavement Distress Variables On Crash Outcomes Using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Regression Modeling, Robert Alan Morgan

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Previous macro-level studies show that the condition of the pavement is associated with roadway safety. However, this premise has not been examined on a micro-level using detailed pavement distress variables (PDVs). The main focus of this research will be to expand the use of the PDV data to further understand the safety risks associated with the type of pavement and each individual PDV by analyzing the likelihood of having a rear-end and/or injurious crash, given that a crash occurs.

Sample crash data and PDV data from the Commonwealth of Virginia for the years 2007 and 2008 were used to produce …

Multi-Level Safety Performance Functions For High Speed Facilities, Mohamed Ahmed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

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 …

A Comprehensive Severity Analysis Of Large Vehicle Crashes, Haluk Laman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to determine the contributing factors affecting severe traffic crashes (severe: incapacitating and fatal - non-severe: no injury, possible injury, and non-incapacitating), and in particular those factors influencing crashes involving large vehicles (heavy trucks, truck tractors, RVs, and buses). Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) crash reports of 2008 have been used. The data included 352 fatalities and 9,838 injuries due to large vehicle crashes. Using the crashes involving large vehicles, a model comparison between binary logit model and a Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) decision tree model is provided. There were …

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 …