Minimizing user delay and crash potential through highway work zone planning.

Details

• Creators:
  Kurker, Michael ; Fournier, Chris ; Zhao, Qun ; Hakimi, Shadi ; Qi, Yi ; Tang, Shoupeng ; Liu, Rouyu ; Juri, Natalia Ruiz ; Duthie, Jennifer ; Machemehl, Randy
• Corporate Creators:
  Texas Southern University ; University of Texas at Austin. Center for Transportation Research
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Work zone traffic control
  • Lane closure
  • Merging traffic
  • Traffic queuing
  • Work zone safety
  • Microsimulation
  • Traffic delays
  • Dynamic traffic assignment
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA/TX-13/0-6704-1
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Texas
• Corporate Publisher:
  Texas Department of Transportation. Research and Technology Implementation Office
• Abstract:
  Lane closures due to highway work zones introduce many challenges to ensuring smooth traffic operations and a ; safe environment for drivers and workers. In addition, merging has been found to be one of the most stressful ; aspects of driving and a merge process that is viewed as “unfair” through actions like queue jumping can lead to ; further unsafe behaviors stemming from “road rage.” To address these issues, the work in this project will focus ; on lane control solutions for intermediate and long-term highway work zones. In order to evaluate network ; performance, driver behavior, driver operations, and impacts on safety, several tools were used. Using a ; combination of field observations, microsimulation, and dynamic traffic assignment tools, the main objective was ; to develop a procedural guide or decision tree for freeway work zone traffic control planning. This procedural ; guide would then be presented to the Texas Department of Transportation in a pilot training workshop. Using ; microsimulation software, with a focus on VISSIM, the analysis of different applications of merge concepts ; through delay and safety is presented in the project. In order to appropriately draw conclusions about and identify ; trends of different merge concepts from the microsimulation software, early merge, late merge, and signal merge ; were first explored in a thorough literature review. In addition to delay and queuing analysis completed using ; VISSIM, the Federal Highway Administration’s Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) was used to ; address the effects of implementing signal merge on rear-end and lane-change conflicts. Compiling the data ; collection, VISSIM microsimulation outputs, and SSAM signal merge safety outputs, general conclusions and ; decisions were provided.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  0-6704
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/27447/dot_27447_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.48 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8d636f7285790af9308c212d6fa5be0b580e66694653ce6c6266c98ae0d8d6dd0c7d08af7cd63ea8dbe8aea20b55e201574ae9a5cd4346179ce9284f87530afe