Enhanced Micro-simulation Models for Accurate Safety Assessment of Traffic Management ITS Solutions

Enhanced Micro-simulation Models for Accurate Safety Assessment of Traffic Management ITS Solutions
Author: Wuping Xin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2008
Genre: Traffic flow
ISBN:

Much research has been conducted in the development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative ITS technologies aiming to improve traffic operations and driving safety. Existing micro-simulation modeling only describes normative car-following behaviors devoid of weakness and risks associated with real-life everyday driving. This research aims to develop a new behavioral car-following model that is pertinent to the true nature of everyday human driving. Unlike traditional car-following models that deliberately prohibit vehicle collisions, this new model builds upon multi-disciplinary findings explicitly taking into account perceptual thresholds, judgment errors, anisotropy of reaction times and driver inattention, in order to replicate "less-than-perfect" driving behavior with all its weaknesses and risks. Most importantly, all parameters of this model have direct physical meaning; this ensures vehicle collisions are replicated as a result of behavioral patterns rather than simply being numerical artifacts of the model. Meanwhile, vehicle trajectories were extracted from real-life crashes collected from a freeway section of I-94WB. This is by far the first data collection efforts that aim to collect vehicle trajectories from real-life crashes to aid car-following modeling. These data were employed in this study to test, calibrate and validate the model. This new model is successful in replicating these vehicle trajectories as well as crashes.

Intelligent Transportation Related Complex Systems and Sensors

Intelligent Transportation Related Complex Systems and Sensors
Author: Kyandoghere Kyamakya
Publisher: MDPI
Total Pages: 494
Release: 2021-09-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3036508481

Building around innovative services related to different modes of transport and traffic management, intelligent transport systems (ITS) are being widely adopted worldwide to improve the efficiency and safety of the transportation system. They enable users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and smarter decisions on the use of transport networks. Current ITSs are complex systems, made up of several components/sub-systems characterized by time-dependent interactions among themselves. Some examples of these transportation-related complex systems include: road traffic sensors, autonomous/automated cars, smart cities, smart sensors, virtual sensors, traffic control systems, smart roads, logistics systems, smart mobility systems, and many others that are emerging from niche areas. The efficient operation of these complex systems requires: i) efficient solutions to the issues of sensors/actuators used to capture and control the physical parameters of these systems, as well as the quality of data collected from these systems; ii) tackling complexities using simulations and analytical modelling techniques; and iii) applying optimization techniques to improve the performance of these systems.

Annual Report

Annual Report
Author: University of Minnesota. Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
Publisher:
Total Pages: 54
Release: 2002
Genre: Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems
ISBN:

Speed Management

Speed Management
Author: European Conference of Ministers of Transport
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2006-10-13
Genre:
ISBN: 9282103781

Speeding is the number one road safety problem in a large number of OECD/ECMT countries. It is responsible for around one third of the current, unacceptably high levels of road fatalities. Speeding has an impact not only on accidents but also on the ...

Simulation of Traffic Crashes Using Cell Based Micro-simulation

Simulation of Traffic Crashes Using Cell Based Micro-simulation
Author: Victor Muchuruza
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2006
Genre:
ISBN:

ABSTRACT: The deterioration of the safety of operation, coupled with the persistent increase in rearend crashes, is of great concern in finding accurate and realistic methods of modeling traffic flow and preventing traffic crashes. For some decades safety evaluation methods have relied on analysis of historical crash data. Since crashes are random and rare events and, in most cases, are independent events, it is difficult to find a sufficient number of crashes on a road section in a relatively short time period (e.g., a month or even a year). Thus, multi-year collection of crash data is used in safety analysis. Another safety evaluation method that has been practiced though in small scale is traffic conflict techniques (TCT). The advantage of using TCT in safety evaluations is the ability to test or study a safety strategy or improvement applied on the roadway facility in a relatively short period of time compared with traditional methods, which are dependent on crash data. However, use of TCT is not popular; perhaps because it needs extensive resources to collect, extract, and analyze conflict information. Moreover, like crash data analysis, use of TCT also makes concerned authorities reactive to the problem by responding to the crashes that have already occurred. Therefore, alternative proactive safety evaluation techniques that can improve the quality of traffic safety evaluation are needed at this time. One way of using proactive safety evaluation techniques and thus become more preventive than reactive towards dealing with the overall safety problem is to utilize the capability of traffic micro-simulation to assess safety on highways through examination of hazardous vehicle movements in the traffic stream. Using micro-simulation predictive methods, it may be possible to diagnose safety problems and apply appropriate remedial measures, rather than waiting until a crash occurs to remedy the problem. This means, a hazard can be early identified and possibly corrected before implementation of highway projects. In addition, the use of simulation tools to evaluate the safety of a traffic system can be advantageous because such tools provide extensive results for any study area within a relatively short time along with other traffic operational measures like level of service, delays, travel times, and capacities. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation was to analyze numerically the likelihood of the traffic crashes that might occur on the highway using cellular based micro-simulations. The modeling considered occurrence of rear-end crashes on high-speed highways with two lanes of traffic in each direction. Narrowing the safety evaluation to rear-end crashes, this study sought to analyze these crashes by providing simulation evidence of association between time-based traffic safety indicators and driver attributes with the likelihood of conflict or collision. To meet the study objectives, a stochastic cellular automata traffic model have been extended to use field-derived vehicle and driver characteristics. The vehicles' acceleration submodel in the simulation is categorized into different regimes depending on the prevailing traffic conditions. The vehicles' evolutions in the proposed micro-simulation model are based on kinematic equations to enhance the realism of their advancements. Behavioral variance in the model is introduced by taking in consideration both driver aggression and responsiveness to the traffic conditions. The model is calibrated using field data. Comparison of simulated spacings and speeds obtained from the simulation output with vehicle trajectories data obtained from the field return a Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of less than 10% and a Theil's coefficient of inequality (U) of about 0.002. These statistics inferred that the proposed model worked well in replicating traffic on the field. In addition, correlation results showed that simulation results not only agree to the theoretical results but also to the detector data collected from the field. The driver behavior was found to contribute more in the likelihood of crashes which was determined by amount of great deceleration that driver apply to maintain safety during movement. The likelihood of vehicles to crash in the model was formulated from the Gamma distribution functions. Closer examination of the probability of a vehicle to crash in the model indicated that the likelihood of crashing is high when the traffic is flowing close to the maximum flow.

Integrating Observational and Microscopic Simulation Models for Traffic Safety Analysis

Integrating Observational and Microscopic Simulation Models for Traffic Safety Analysis
Author: Usama Elrawy Shahdah
Publisher:
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

In safety analysis, two questions typically need to be addressed: 1) how to identify unsafe sites for priority intervention? and 2) how to determine the effectiveness of treatments introduced at these and other sites? Two types of approaches have been considered in the literature to provide answers for these questions: (1) observational models based on historical crash data and (2) observed or simulated higher risk vehicle interactions or traffic conflicts. Observational crash-based models are good at predicting higher severity crashes, but they tend to ignore higher risk vehicle interactions that compromise safety, that have not resulted in crashes (e.g. near misses). Proponents of microscopic simulation argue that ignoring these higher risk interactions can severely understate the safety problem at a given site and lead to a misallocation of scarce treatment funds. Another problem with observational crash prediction models is the need for sufficient crash data reported over an extended period of time to provide reliable estimates of “potential” lack of safety. This requirement can be a challenge for certain types of treatment and different sites or locations. Furthermore, observational approaches are not causal in nature, and as such, they fail to provide a sound “behavioural” rationale for “why” certain treatments affect safety. On the other hand, traffic conflicts occur more frequently than crashes and can provide a stronger experimental basis for estimating safety effects on a short-term basis. This is especially important given the rare random nature of crashes for certain traffic conditions. Additionally, they provide a more rational basis for lack of safety than is normally available from crash occurrence data. Basically, through the application of calibrated behavioural simulation, traffic conflicts can be linked to specific driver actions and responses at a given site, more so than conventional reported crashes. As such, they permit a causal underpinning for possible treatment effects and this is important to decision-makers because it underscores why certain treatments act to enhance safety, rather than simply providing an estimate of the treatment effect itself. Notwithstanding the usefulness of conflict-based measures, observed crashes remain the primary verifiable measure for representing failures in the transportation systems. Unfortunately traffic conflicts have not been formally linked to observed crashes, and hence their values as indicators for treatment effect have not been fully explored. This presents a challenge on how best to use both conflicts and observed crashes to better understand where safety is most problematic, where intervention is needed, and how best to resolve specific safety problems? In this thesis, the position is taken that a complete understanding of safety problems at a given site can only emerge from a more inclusive analysis of both observed crashes and traffic conflicts. This is explored by developing two integrated models: (1) An integrated priority ranking model is presented that combines estimates from observational crash prediction with an analysis of simulated traffic conflicts; (2) An integrated treatment model is presented that uses simulated traffic conflicts that are linked statistically to observed crashes to provide estimates of crash modification factor (CMF). The suitability of these integrated models has been evaluated using data for a sample of signalized intersections from Toronto for the period 1999-2006. In the absence of a benchmark (or true) priority ranking outcome, a number of evaluation criteria were considered, and the integrated ranking model was found to yield better results than both conventional observational crash-based models (including empirical Bayesian, potential for safety improvement methods) and conflict-based models (including conflict frequency and rate for different risk thresholds). For treatment effects, the results suggest that CMFs can be estimated reliably from conflicts derived from microsimulation, where the simulation platform has been sufficiently calibrated. The link between crashes and conflicts provides additional inferences concerning treatment effects, in those cases where treatments were not previously implemented (i.e., no after history). Since there is an absence of crash history, the treatment effect is based exclusively on simulated conflicts. Moreover, the integrated model has the added advantage of providing site-specific CMFs instead of applying a constant CMF across all sites considered for a potential treatment.

Traffic Data Collection and its Standardization

Traffic Data Collection and its Standardization
Author: Jaume Barceló
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2010-07-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1441960708

A nice night of October 2007, in Beijing, during the XV World Conference on ITS a number of colleagues met informally for a dinner party that spontaneously became a vivid discussion on the importance of traffic data for all types of p- poses. Researchers can hardly do any progress in modeling, developing, and te- ing theories without suitable data, and what practitioners can do in real life is limited not only by technology but also by the availability of the required data. Quite frequently, the data and not the technologies are what determine how far we can go. Any discussion about traffic data leads in a natural way to a discussion on the variety of traffic data sources, formats, levels of aggregation, accuracies, and so on. Consequently, we moved to talk on the initiative that Kuwahara had undertaken in his traffic laboratory at the University of Tokyo, known as the International Traffic Data Base, and thus smoothly but inexorably we came to agree that it would be convenient to organize a workshop to continue our discussion at a more formal level, share our points of view with other colleagues, listen what they had to say and, if possible, d- seminate the findings in our professional and academic communities.

Management and Information Technology in the Digital Era

Management and Information Technology in the Digital Era
Author: Nawal Chemma
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2022-09-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 180382297X

Management and Information Technology in the Digital Era: Challenges and Perspectives explores the management and practical implications of digital information management to provide theoretical insight for managers and researchers to co-create their technology values and better understand its prospects and challenges.

Intelligent Transportation and Planning: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice

Intelligent Transportation and Planning: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice
Author: Management Association, Information Resources
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 1134
Release: 2018-02-02
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1522552111

From driverless cars to vehicular networks, recent technological advances are being employed to increase road safety and improve driver satisfaction. As with any newly developed technology, researchers must take care to address all concerns, limitations, and dangers before widespread public adoption. Intelligent Transportation and Planning: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is an innovative reference source for the latest academic material on the applications, management, and planning of intelligent transportation systems. Highlighting a range of topics, such as automatic control, infrastructure systems, and system architecture, this publication is ideally designed for engineers, academics, professionals, and practitioners actively involved in the transportation planning sector.

Safe Mobility

Safe Mobility
Author: Dominique Lord
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 511
Release: 2018-04-18
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1787148920

This book increases the level of knowledge on road safety contexts, issues and challenges; shares what can currently be done to address the variety of issues; and points to what needs to be done to make further gains in road safety.