Development of Autonomous Truck Mounted Attenuator (ATMA) Deployment Guidelines Considering Traffic and Safety Impacts

Details

• Creators:
  Hu, Xianbiao ; Tang, Qing ; Ding, Yuxin ; Wu, Zirui ; Pickering-Hilgers, Heather
• Corporate Creators:
  Pennsylvania State University
• Corporate Contributors:
  Colorado. Department of Transportation. Applied Research & Innovations Branch ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Autonomous Vehicles Bottlenecks Connected Vehicles Deployment Effective Discharge Rate Guidelines Highway Safety Intelligent Vehicles Moving Bottleneck Operational Design Domain (ODD) Simulation Truck Mounted Attenuators Work Zone Safety

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• Publication/ Report Number:
  CDOT-2025-07
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Colorado
• Corporate Publisher:
  Colorado. Department of Transportation
• Abstract:
  The Autonomous Truck Mounted Attenuator (ATMA) system represents a specialized application of connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technologies, designed to enhance worker safety during roadway maintenance operations. Despite its growing adoption across state agencies, formalized deployment criteria remain absent from national guidelines such as the MUTCD, prompting individual DOTs to define their own standards. This study addresses a critical deployment challenge: identifying the appropriate traffic conditions—i.e., the Operational Design Domain (ODD)—under which ATMA can be safely and effectively used. The research begins by analytically modeling the reduced discharge rate resulting from ATMA-induced moving bottlenecks on multilane highways. Using this as a foundation, microscopic traffic simulation is applied to assess the resulting impacts on vehicle delay and traffic density—key metrics for determining Level of Service (LOS) as per the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). Through this modeling framework, a functional relationship is established between Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) and LOS. The approach is validated using high-resolution NGSIM trajectory data, which confirms the model’s ability to accurately reflect capacity reductions caused by slow-moving ATMA vehicles. Sensitivity analyses further reveal that roadway performance is highly influenced by K and D factors, as well as ATMA travel speed. Results suggest that, to maintain LOS at grade C, an AADT threshold of approximately 40,000 vehicles per day provides a practical design guideline.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  SPR-5380-20-06
• Collection(s):
  Autonomous Vehicles
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:064d2e5d83d0eb15ae2c753c6205af7e5a9d50578e05fd55a1e7a71c449e4d37fdf1384d6903c3872438ad07116548784a28e1a6f1c316637c3964cf07aadf0f
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/87981/dot_87981_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.02 MB ]