Transportation Engineering Commons^™

A Comprehensive Ml And Ai Framework For Intersection Safety: Assessing Contributing Factors, Surrogate Safety Measures, Non-Compliance Behaviors, And Cost-Inclusive Methodology, Deep Patel

Theses and Dissertations

Intersection safety, particularly in traffic management, has emerged as a pressing concern due to its substantial contribution to road crashes and fatalities. In recent years, understanding road users' behavior and conflicts at intersections has become essential for evaluating traffic safety. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), in 2020, over 50% of fatal and injury crashes occurred at or near intersections, necessitating further investigation. This study addresses this issue through an innovative blend of comprehensive literature review, advanced machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, surrogate safety measures (SSMs), non-compliance behavior, and emphasizing the economic aspects of traffic incidents. First, …

Kentucky Traffic Collision Facts Calendar Year 2023 Report, Paul Ross, Eric Green, Chris Blackden, Kenneth R. Agent, Chris Van Dyke

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Traffic Crash Data In Kentucky 2019-2023, Paul Ross, Eric Green, Chris Blackden, Christopher Van Dyke, Teng Wang, Mohammad Majidi

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Low-Cycle Fatigue Fracture Of Longitudinal Reinforcing Steel Bars On The Seismic Performance Of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Piers, Yu-Fu Ko, Jessica Gonzalez

Mineta Transportation Institute

Earthquakes, which can cause tremendous local stress and strain on infrastructure, can cause reinforced concrete (RC) bridges to collapse due to the concrete cracking and fracture of the steel reinforcement rebars. The fracture of longitudinal reinforcing steel due to low-cycle fatigue is one of the main causes of failure in RC structures under earthquake loading. The purpose of this research is to include the effects of low-cycle fatigue fracture of longitudinal reinforcing steel bars on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete bridge piers. To obtain a greater understanding of low-cycle fatigue failure of steel reinforcement of RC bridge piers subjected …

Evaluation Of Kentucky’S Driver Focus Camera System, David Leddy, Brian Beaven, Xiaobing Li, Andrew Martin, Jennifer Walton, Chris Van Dyke

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers who engage in federally prohibited activities such as not wearing safety belts, using hand-held mobile phones, or texting while driving endanger themselves and imperil the well-being of everyone who occupies the surrounding roadway environment. Unfortunately, conventional CMV inspection routines fail to detect many of these violations because inspectors have difficulty obtaining a clear view of truck cab interiors from inspection facilities. Recognizing it is critical to improve enforcement of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, this project evaluated the performance of a Driver Focus Camera System (DFCS) at an inspection facility on Interstate 75 northbound in …

Design Of An Above Pavement Wireless Sensor Node (Apwsn) For Real-Time Roadway Monitoring Using Piezoelectric Energy-Harvesting, Jochy Jonathan Perez

Theses and Dissertations

The evolution of Smart Highway and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies offers new opportunities to improve the safety and efficiency of vehicular traffic on roads. This research effort describes the development of a wireless pavement sensor that provides a novel method to detect key pavement parameters while incorporating low-power energy harvesting that leverages the kinetic energy generated by vehicular traffic. The Above Pavement Wireless Sensor Node (APWSN) is the embodiment of the approach. APWSN can facilitate the strategic deployment of sensors on a wide variety of roads to enable real-time data collection to support decision-making processes for road infrastructure maintenance …

Unveiling The Risks Of Speeding Behavior By Investigating The Dynamics Of Driver Injury Severity Through Advanced Analytics., Mouyid Islam, Parisa Hosseini, Anahita Kakhani, Mohammad Jalayer, Deep Patel

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Single-vehicle crashes, particularly those caused by speeding, result in a disproportionately high number of fatalities and serious injuries compared to other types of crashes involving passenger vehicles. This study aims to identify factors that contribute to driver injury severity in single-vehicle crashes using machine learning models and advanced econometric models, namely mixed logit with heterogeneity in means and variances. National Crash data from the Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS) managed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) between 2016 and 2018 were utilized for this study. XGBoost and Random Forest models were employed to identify the most influential variables …

Distracted Driving: Identification, Contributing Factors, And Safety Countermeasures, Ahmed Sajid Hasan

Theses and Dissertations

Distracted driving is a hazardous behavior responsible for 25% of all fatal traffic crashes in New Jersey. While traditional methods such as surveys, videos, and simulations have been used to identify and evaluate distracted driving events, these approaches primarily provide cross-sectional data that fails to capture the true rate of distraction on the road. This study addresses this limitation by collecting longitudinal data on distracted driving events across selected corridors in New Jersey. A data collection team continuously drove through these corridors, manually counting and video recording driver distraction events. The collected data was then analyzed to assess the significance …

Sustainable Mobility, Shams Tanvir

Mavs Open Press Open Educational Resources - Archive

This textbook and OER material cover tools and basic knowledge required to prepare transportation engineers and planners to contribute towards a carbon-neutral mobility future. The goal of the textbook is to train engineering students on existing tools and policy levers that can be used to incorporate emerging transportation technologies in a sustainable, equitable, and efficient manner.

Fundamentals Of Math, Physics, And Statistics For Future Transportation Professionals, Anurag Pande, Peyton Ratto, Ahmed Farid

Mavs Open Press Open Educational Resources - Archive

This textbook and OER material cover tools and basic knowledge required to master the prerequisite essentials of physics, mathematics, and statistics applied in transportation engineering. The textbook modules are intended for students with undergraduate degrees in planning and other less technical fields who are interested in pursuing transportation careers where background engineering knowledge is required.

2024 Safety Belt Usage Survey In Kentucky, Erin Lammers-Staats, Derek Young, Kenneth R. Agent

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

No abstract provided.

High-Mast Tower Foundation – Phase Ii, Ammar Al Maabreh, Abdelrahman Awawdeh, Marc Maguire, Jay Puckett, Brandon Kreiling

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Challenge: High-mast luminaire supports used in the US transportation sector are typically steel poles that are attached to a baseplate via a butt or socket weld. Many have failed primarily due to fatigue cracking at the weld toe. Significant research in the US improved the fatigue performance of these structures; however, failures still occur due to high-cycle cracking at the weld toes, or at other fatigue-prone details. Additionally, poles are failing in moderate winds that create galloping. Galloping is an aerodynamic phenomenon where the wind excitation frequency matches the pole’s natural frequency creating resonance. The top amplitudes are many times …

Spot, Zone And Overcoat Painting Of Steel Bridges, Christopher Goff, Sudhir Palle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Over the past 25 – 30 years, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has replaced lead-based coatings on many bridges, often with zinc-based systems. But many of these coating systems are now degrading and reaching the ends of their service lives. Historically, KYTC has relied entirely on remove-and-replace painting, however, given the programmatic costs associated with remove-and-replace painting and constraints imposed by limited funding, the agency needs to explore more economical options, such as spot, zone, and overcoat painting. This report discusses use cases for spot, zone, and overcoat painting and lays out guidelines staff can use to determine what method …

Analysis Of Traffic Operation And Safety At Cloverleaf And Diamond Interchanges With And Without Connected And Autonomous Vehicles, Nischal Khadka

LSU Master's Theses

Even though diamond and cloverleaf interchanges are commonly used in road networks, comparative studies on their operational safety and efficiency remain limited. Also, previous studies have explored the impact of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) at diamond interchanges, but the effects on cloverleaf interchanges are not yet thoroughly investigated. This study addresses these gaps by evaluating the traffic operation and safety performance of cloverleaf interchanges compared to diamond interchanges. It also assesses the influence of various Market Penetration Rates (MPRs) of CAVs on travel time, queue lengths, and conflict points at cloverleaf interchanges, considering different weaving lengths.

Data on peak-hour …

Modeling The Influence Of Internal Factors On Vehicular Mobility Performance, Aziz Mdimi

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Traffic mobility is significantly influenced by road conditions and the internal factors governing vehicular performance. Internal factors play a crucial role in vehicular mobility, influencing vehicles operate and performance. While existing vehicular mobility models primarily address external factors, external factors such as governor, engine, gear train and differential unit remain underexplored. This study formulates a comprehensive model to address this gap, focusing on the internal components that affect vehicular mobility. The proposed model employs both analytical and numerical methods to derive transfer functions for these subsystems using Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB), aiming to capture the dynamic behavior of vehicles under various …

Time-To-Failure Prediction Of Fine-Grained Soil Slopes Subject To Weather-Driven Deterioration, Arm M. Morsy

Mineta Transportation Institute

Embankments have been widely used in the construction of transportation and flood defense infrastructure. Embankments constructed from clays experience a suite of weather-driven deterioration processes that lead to a progressive loss of hydromechanical performance, causing potentially severe and costly consequences. This study aimed to predict the time to failure of aging, deteriorating clay embankments supporting transportation infrastructure. A multi-phase numerical modeling approach was developed to replicate the long-term, weather-driven, hydromechanical behavior of clay embankments. This model simulated the behavior of a number of well-documented embankment failure case studies that had sufficient data to derive the necessary soil properties and climate …

Quantifying Lock Criticality For Inland Waterway Navigation Using An Agent-Based Simulation, Ashwin Narayan

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Inland waterway travel has tremendous potential to improve multimodal transportation in the United States due to its environment-friendly and safe nature. Waterway travel has proven to be much cheaper per ton-mile and more fuel efficient than trucks. Millions of dollars have recently been invested in inland waterway networks to facilitate travel. The waterway infrastructure must be resilient to enable efficient waterway travel and prevent unnecessary delays. Locks, an important component of waterway infrastructure, enable vessels to travel between waterways of varying depths and must be maintained consistently to avoid unexpected failures. However, with limited resources, it is difficult to preserve …

Advancing Unmanned Ground Vehicle Path Planning With Quantified Map Uncertainty, Israel Afriyie

All Theses

This thesis addresses the complex challenge of path planning for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) in areas where traditional navigation systems are inadequate, such as unstructured or off-road military zones. Recognizing the limitations of current path planning algorithms, which primarily focus on optimizing for the shortest path and often fail to account for variability and risks, this research proposes an enhanced Hyperstar algorithm. This approach not only considers the fastest route but also integrates maximum delays and visibility risks into its computation, ensuring a balance between swift mission completion and concealment from adversaries.

Utilizing terrain maps and incorporating uncertainties in map …

Evaluation Of Manual Thermal Brake Screening Systems, Jeeyen Koo, David Leddy, Jennifer Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In 2021, manual thermal brake screening systems were installed at Lyon EB and Rowan County weigh stations. Two additional units were installed at Laurel SB and Scott County weigh stations the following year. Although this system is called a thermal brake screening system, its thermal camera images are used to find both brake and tire-related violations. At the time of this project, Lyon (EB), Rowan, and Scott County inspection locations also had tire pressure detection systems in addition to manual thermal brake screening systems. Both systems can be used to identify tire-related violations, but inspectors prefer to use the tire …

An Emergency Response System To Assist The Movement Of Vehicles During Emergency Operations In Urban Transportation Networks, Jamal Nahofti Kohneh

All Dissertations

Emergency responders need to arrive at the emergency scene as soon as possible, but operating vehicles under emergency conditions can pose a risk to both the responders and other road users, potentially resulting in crashes or delays in emergency operations. In this research, an emergency response system is proposed to assist emergency and non-emergency response vehicles (ERVs and non-ERVs) during emergency operations in a connected vehicle environment. This system collects the information from connected ERVs and non-ERVs, utilizes this information as inputs in the proposed models, and sends instruction messages back to vehicles. The proposed models provide the fastest ERV …