Transportation Engineering Commons^™

Safety Considerations For All Road Users On Edge Lane Roads, Michael Williams, Marcial Lamera, Aleksander Bauranov, Carole Voulgaris, Anurag Pande

Mineta Transportation Institute

Edge lane roads (ELRs), also known as advisory bike lanes or advisory shoulders, are a type of shared street where two-way motor vehicle (MV) traffic shares a single center lane, and edge lanes on either side are preferentially reserved for vulnerable road users (VRUs). This work comprises a literature review, an investigation of ELRs’ operational characteristics and potential road user interactions via simulation, and a study of crash data from existing American and Australian ELRs.

The simulation evaluated the impact of various factors (e.g., speed, volume, directional split, etc.) on ELR operation. Results lay the foundation for a siting criterion. …

Low-Cost Modal Identification Sensors For Bridge Field Testing, Daniel Linzell, Saaed Eftekhar Azam, Samira Ardani, Ahmed E Rageh

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This report provides a framework for experimental load rating of bridges via inclusion of low-cost dynamic sensors and dynamic tests. Currently 25% of the bridges in Nebraska are posted for live load. According to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) in 2012, 93% of all postings in the US were based analytical load ratings, 7% were posted using field evaluation and engineering judgement, and 1% were posted using experimental load rating methods.

Instrumentation costs and traffic interruptions can be problematic when load testing is necessary to accurately assess in-situ bridge live load capacity. Recent advances in (i) sensing technology and (ii) …

Non-Nuclear Methods For Compaction Control Of Unbound Soil And Granular Layers, Brad Rister, Charlie Sun, Kean H. Ashurst Jr., Tim Jones, Christopher Van Dyke

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In highway construction, the nuclear density gauge (NDG) is the industry standard for measuring soil density and moisture. They are widely used at state transportation agencies, however, because of their reliance on radiation, NDGs are expensive to maintain and have unique storage requirements. Operators must also earn specialized certifications and adhere to rigorous safety protocols. Equipment manufacturers have developed several non-nuclear density gauges which are more user friendly, however, their accuracy has sometimes not equaled NDGs. This comparative study evaluated the performance of the eGauge (a relatively new device) to NDGs. Over 100 soil density and moisture measurements were collected …

Initial Project Estimates For Design, Right Of Way, Utilities, And Construction, Christopher Van Dyke, Bryan Gibson, Jeff Jasper, Bob Lewis, Doug Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Estimating the cost of highway construction projects is among the more challenging tasks state transportation agencies routinely deal with. Developing accurate estimates is a particularly fraught exercise during the planning and scoping phases, when projects have not been thoroughly defined and information on specifics is in short supply. While the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has used several methodologies to generate initial cost estimates for design, right of way, utilities, and construction (DRUC), approaches vary between the agency’s districts. This report proposes a framework for estimating DRUC-related expenses that can be adopted throughout the state. Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers developed …

Defect Detection In Freight Railcar Tapered-Roller Bearings Using Vibration Techniques, Constantine Tarawneh, Joseph Montalvo, Brent Wilson

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Currently, there are two types of defect detection systems used to monitor the health of freight railcar bearings in service: wayside hot-box detection systems and trackside acoustic detection systems. These systems have proven to be inefficient in accurately determining bearing health, especially in the early stages of defect development. To that end, a prototype onboard bearing condition monitoring system has been developed and validated through extensive laboratory testing and a designated field test in 2015 at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. in Pueblo, CO. The devised system can accurately and reliably characterize the health of bearings based on developed vibration …

Structural Identification And Damage Detection In Bridges Using Wave Method And Uniform Shear Beam Models: A Feasibility Study, Mehran Rahmani, Manan Naik

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report presents a wave method to be used for the structural identification and damage detection of structural components in bridges, e.g., bridge piers. This method has proven to be promising when applied to real structures and large amplitude responses in buildings (e.g., mid-rise and high-rise buildings). This study is the first application of the method to damaged bridge structures. The bridge identification was performed using wave propagation in a simple uniform shear beam model. The method identifies a wave velocity for the structure by fitting an equivalent uniform shear beam model to the impulse response functions of the recorded …

Fiscal Year 2019 Fhwa-536 Report For The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Doug Kreis, Candice Wallace, Bryan Gibson, Sarah Mccormack

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires state transportation agencies to submit a biennial report on local highway finances. The purpose of these reports is to provide FHWA with the data it needs to capture the financing of highway activities at the local level. Based on this information, it can identify trends in revenue, expenditures, investments, and program development, and in turn make decisions about future investments. The report, FHWA-536, asks agencies to report on four areas of local highway finance: 1) disposition of highway-user revenues; 2) revenues used for roads and streets identified by source and funding type; 3) road …

Development, Implementation, And Tracking Of Preventative Safety Metrics, Zamaan Al-Shabbani, Ashtarout Ammar, Hala Nassereddine, Gabriel B. Dadi

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

What gets measured, gets improved. With respect to the safety and health of Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) employees, the primary metric used has been the OSHA recordable incident rate. This incident rate measures how often a Cabinet employee sustains an injury that demands more than basic first aid. This metric is important for understanding injury frequencies, but it does not assist with management of the safety, health, and overall well-being of KYTC personnel. Based on a review of leading safety indicators adopted by various industries, this study devised a comprehensive list of safety metrics the Cabinet will benefit from tracking. …

The Legacy Of Car-Share And Light-Rail Transit For Mobility And Accessibility Improvements In Economically Marginalized Neighborhoods In The New York Metro Area, Kyeongsu Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the value of the car-share program and a new light rail system with respect to their impact on mobility and accessibility improvements in economically and transportation access-wise marginalized neighborhoods in NYC and its adjacent communities. It consists of three main essays that took deep dives into how each new service or system altered mobility or accessibility for those in need. The first essay (Chapter 2) investigates car-share vehicle utilization rates of the Zipcar across NYC. It assesses the utilization rates by vehicle type, service location, time period, and weekday usage compared to weekend activity. With a multivariate …

Evaluation Of Orange Pavement Striping For Use In Work Zones, Erin Lammers-Staats, William Staats, Ken Agent

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Interstate widening projects are commonplace in Kentucky, and safety is of primary concern within the project work zone. Past experience with long work zones revealed two critical safety issues: driver confusion due to unclear pavement markings and a lack of continuous work zone signage for motorists indicating they are still within a work zone. This concern is heightened in transition and taper areas. Highly visible markings in an alternative color other than standard yellow or white might better distinguish the proper travel path for motorists and prevent drivers from returning to normal driving behavior and speeds once they get through …

Commercial Driver’S License Prosecution, Adjudication, And Data Transmission, Andrew Martin, Jeeyen Koo, Jennifer Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Center research team examined law enforcement and adjudication of traffic offenses committed by commercial driver’s license holders. The objectives were to identify states that would provide the data, collect information about their court systems, analyze enforcement and/or adjudication data, and make some general observations about trends. Many state agencies were not able to provide their traffic offense data and therefore, the team focused primarily on data from Kentucky and Washington State.

The study focused on enforcement trends and adjudication of safety-related offenses. Overall, conviction rates remain higher than dismissal and amended rates. In recent years, dismissal and …

The Use Of Dynamic Message Signs (Dmss) On The Freeways: An Empirical Analysis Of Dmss Logs And Survey Data, Boniphace Kutela, Hualiang Teng

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

This study evaluates the Dynamic Message Signs (DMSs) use to dissipate incident information on the freeways in Las Vegas, Nevada. It focuses on the DMSs message timing, extent, and content, from the operators’ and drivers’ perspectives, considering the variability in drivers’ freeway experience. Two-week incidents data with fifty-nine incidents, DMS log data, and responses from a survey questionnaire were used. The descriptive analysis of the incidents revealed that about 54% of the incidents had their information posted on the DMSs; however, information of only 18.6% of the incidents was posted on time. The posted information covered the incident type (54.2%), …

Truck Platooning Effects On Girder Bridges, Joshua Steelman, Jay A. Puckett, Daniel Linzell, Bowen Yang

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Truck platooning – digitally linking two or more trucks to travel in a closely spaced convoy – is increasingly used to save fuel, and reduce driver work and road congestion. Currently, the platoon load effects with several constant headways on bridges have been evaluated and compared to AASHTO design and legal loads. However, reliability assessment and a more rigorous investigation of headway spacing assumptions for truck platoons are lacking. This research provides a framework for determining how much a platoon permit load might be increased given strict control over the load characteristics and operational tactics. The present research evaluates the …

Quality Assessment Of Flexible Pavement Automated Cracking Data In Louisiana, Mostafiz Emtiaz

LSU Master's Theses

Pavement distress survey is the most critical and integral part of pavement management system. Transportation agencies all over the world depends on the accurate pavement distress survey to take major decisions like pavement rehabilitation or reconstruction. Pavement management at the network level requires accurate pavement distress survey to decide the allocation of budget for pavement maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction. This study started collected network-level cracking distress data through manual measurements on high-resolution pavement images and the results were used as the ground truth measurements to evaluate the corresponding automated distress data from the Pavement Management System database. Results showed that …

Developing Guidelines For Assessing The Effectiveness Of Intelligent Compaction Technology, Mehran Mazari, Siavash F. Aval, Siddharth M. Satani, David Corona, Joshua Garrido

Mineta Transportation Institute

Many factors affect pavement compaction quality, which can vary. Such variability may result in an additional number of passes required, extended working hours, higher energy consumption, and negative environmental impacts. The use of Intelligent Compaction (IC) technology during construction can improve the quality and longevity of pavement structures while reducing risk for contractors and project owners alike. This study develops guidelines for the implementation of IC in the compaction of pavement layers as well as performing a preliminary life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of IC technology compared to the conventional compaction approach. The environmental impacts of the improved construction process were …

Calibration Of Iri-Based Psi Equation Using Updated Quarter-Car Parameters, Shirin Bahaaeldin Hassan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The international roughness index (IRI) was established in the 1980s and later used in generating the present serviceability index (PSI), which was developed to predict present serviceability rating (PSR). PSR is a measure of ride quality ratings made by a panel of highway users. The ratings range from 0 to 5, where “0” for very poor and “5” for very good. Various studies had formulated the relationship between IRI and PSI for different types of pavements, such as flexible, rigid, and composite pavements. The current IRI-based PSI equation being used among many state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) was proposed by …

Improving Pedestrian Safety Using Video Data, Surrogate Safety Measures And Deep Learning, Shile Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The research aims to improve pedestrian safety at signalized intersections using video data, surrogate safety measures and deep learning. Machine learning (including deep learning) models are proposed for predicting pedestrians' potentially dangerous situations. On the one hand, pedestrians' red-light violations can expose the pedestrians to motorized traffic and pose potential threats to pedestrian safety. Thus, the prediction of pedestrians' crossing intention during red-light signals is carried out. The pose estimation technique is used to extract features on pedestrians' bodies. Machine learning models are used to predict pedestrians' crossing intention at intersections' red-light, with video data collected from signalized intersections. Multiple …

Remediation Of Roadway Runoff Nutrients: Querying Sources Delivery Mechanism, Efficacy Of Stormwater Best Management Practices, And Stormwater Routing Through Karst Geology, Mohammad Shokri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Stormwater road runoff is a widespread non-point source of contaminants such as nutrients, which endangers water bodies, especially in vulnerable karst areas such as Florida. While roadside vegetated filter strips (VFSs) and stormwater basins are generally accepted best management practices (BMPs) for stormwater management, uncertainties about VFS nutrient removal are reported and stormwater basins are concerned of facilitating contaminant transport. In this dissertation, the application and efficacy of engineered infiltration media was tested as a subgrade for the enhanced nutrient removal from roadway runoff. Results of field-scale laboratory testing indicated that a VFS with engineered biosorption activated media (BAM) outperformed …

Evaluation Of Liquid Ice Melting Additives For Winter Maintenance Applications, Erin Lammers-Staats

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Winter weather can often pose difficulties for transportation agencies as they work to clear roads of snow and ice quickly so that motorists can travel safely and efficiently. Kentucky has made efforts to maximize efficiency within its winter maintenance program by focusing on optimized equipment usage and personnel time management. This study’s objective was to evaluate novel anti-icers and calculate how their performance compared to the current performance of brine and calcium chloride mixture. New brine additives claim to offer better results, but there is very little guidance about how to systematically evaluate new anti-icers. The author developed a testing …

Context Classification Of Roadways Using Nationally Available Gis Data, Laura Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

A Context Classification System based on context attributes of the area surrounding a roadway provides detailed information about the environment of a roadway corridor, while enabling practitioners to cater roadway projects to the community they are within. This study sought to create a system that would automatically classify roadway segments into the correct context, using data sources that are available nationwide. The proposed approach was tested by classifying the roadways in Highway District 7 of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. This process would make context classification approachable to more organizations, as it would reduce the amount of time required to apply …

An Exploration Of The Application Of Spatial Network Screening Methods On Iowa Rural Road Crashes, Rosanna Maria Novellino Suarez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Safety on the roadway system is important due to its usage on mobility and accessibility, especially on rural roads in the state of Iowa. Single vehicle run off road crashes have been increasing in the United States and studies and research has increased due to the concern with those. For this effort, a spatial-temporal method of traffic safety network screening is utilized in order to evaluate the concerning type of crashes in particular locations. The study of single vehicle run off road crashes using the proposed method is important since distributions and clusters of crashes along roadways can be observed …

Modeling Of Crash Risk For Realistic Artificial Data Generation: Application To Naturalistic Driving Study Data, Lauren Hoover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Most safety performance analysis employs cross-sectional and time-series datasets, posing an important challenge to safety performance and crash modification analysis. The traditional safety model analysis paradigm relying on observed data only allows relative comparisons between analysis methods and is unable to establish how well the methods mimic the true underlying crash generation process. Assumptions are made about the data, but whether the assumptions truly characterize the safety data generation in the real world remains unknown. To address this issue, this thesis proposes the generation of realistic artificial data (RAD). In developing a prototype RAD generator for crash data, we mimic …

Real-Time Traffic Safety Evaluation In The Context Of Connected Vehicles And Mobile Sensing, Pei Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Recently, with the development of connected vehicles and mobile sensing technologies, vehicle-based data become much easier to obtain. However, only few studies have investigated the application of this kind of novel data to real-time traffic safety evaluation. This dissertation aims to conduct a series of real-time traffic safety studies by integrating all kinds of available vehicle-based data sources. First, this dissertation developed a deep learning model for identifying vehicle maneuvers using data from smartphone sensors (i.e., accelerometer and gyroscope). The proposed model was robust and suitable for real-time application as it required less processing of smartphone sensor data compared with …

Safety And Operations Of Urban Arterials Incorporating The Context Classification System, Nada Mahmoud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Urban arterials connect multiple areas in the city and encourage non-motorist activities. Hence, the safety and operations on urban arterials is vital as they improve the mobility of daily commuters and road users. This research aims to facilitate traffic operations on urban arterials by proposing multiple mythological approaches to estimate and predict turning movement counts at signalized intersections using traffic data from adjacent intersections. Further, it aims to improve the safety by developing crash prediction models, identifying the hotspots for multiple crash types, and indicating the factors contributing to operating speed as well as non-motorist crashes. The analyses included tuning, …

Workshop Outcomes Report: 1st International Workshop On Seismic Resilience Of Arctic Infrastructure And Social Systems, Majid Ghayoomi, Katharine Duderstadt, Alexander Kholodov, Alexander Shiklomanov, Matthew Turner, Elham Ajorlou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mechanically Spliced Precast Bridge Columns, Ted Sjurseth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mechanical bar splices provide an alternative to the traditional method of lap splicing to achieve reinforcement bar continuity in reinforced concrete. Even though mechanical bar splices can be used as new precast column connections to accelerate the bridge construction (ABC), The use of bar couplers in the plastic hinge region of bridge columns is prohibited by the current US codes since the effects of bar couplers on the seismic behavior of columns is not fully investigated. A bridge column including precast columns with couplers located in a high seismic region must be designed to handle large inelastic lateral deformations. The …

See-Trend: Secure Traffic-Related Event Detection In Smart Communities, Stephan Olariu, Dimitrie C. Popescu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

It has been widely recognized that one of the critical services provided by Smart Cities and Smart Communities is Smart Mobility. This paper lays the theoretical foundations of SEE-TREND, a system for Secure Early Traffic-Related EveNt Detection in Smart Cities and Smart Communities. SEE-TREND promotes Smart Mobility by implementing an anonymous, probabilistic collection of traffic-related data from passing vehicles. The collected data are then aggregated and used by its inference engine to build beliefs about the state of the traffic, to detect traffic trends, and to disseminate relevant traffic-related information along the roadway to help the driving public make informed …

Identifying Origin-Destination Trips From Gps Data – Application In Travel Time Reliability Of Dedicated Trucks, Li Zhao, Ying Li

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

The advancement of data collection technologies has brought an upsurge in GPS applications. For example, travel behaviour research has benefited from the integration of multiple sources of Global Positioning System (GPS) data. However, the effective use of such data is still impeded by the challenge in data processing. For instance, GPS data, despite providing detailed spatial movement information, do not label the starting and finishing points of a trip, especially for commercial trucks. Hence, there is a critical need to develop a trip identification method to effectively use the trajectory data provided by GPS without additional information. This paper focused …

Crash Analysis And Development Of Safety Performance Functions For Florida Roads In The Framework Of The Context Classification System, Ma'en Al-Omari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Nowadays, technology is employed in many safety applications and countermeasures that would enhance traffic safety by influencing some crash-related factors. Therefore, crash-related factors must be determined for every roadway element by the development of safety performance functions. Safety performance functions (SPF) are employed to predict crash counts at the different roadway elements. Several SPFs have been developed for the various roadway elements based on different classifications such as functional classification and area type. Since a more detailed classification of roadway elements leads to more accurate crash predictions, multiple states have developed new system to categorize roads based on a comprehensive …

Monitoring Of Microscopic Traffic Behavior For Safety Applications Using Temporal Logic, Mariam Wessam Hassan Mohamed Nour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Smart cities are revolutionizing the transportation infrastructure by the integration of technology. However, ensuring that various transportation system components are operating as expected and in a safe manner is a great challenge. One of the proposed solutions is traffic monitoring systems which collect and analyze traffic data for the safe operation and management of the overall system. Even though traffic safety analysis has been tied to crash data, surrogate safety measures (SSM) have recently emerged as a replacement. SSM can provide a convenient alternative for understanding the impact of conflicts on overall road safety. Traditionally, conflicts were studied through manual …