ITS Berkeley

Proposed Analytical Technique for Estimating Capacity and Level of Service of Major Freeway Weaving Sections

Cassidy, Michael J.
May, Adolf D.
1991

Weaving typically occurs where merging traffic movements cross over diverging movements. The prevalence of weaving areas on freeways warrants the need for analytical techniques that can reliably analyze or design these critical freeway components. However, previous research at the University of California suggested that existing analytical procedures may not predict weaving operation with a sufficient degree of reliability. Consequently, a more reliable procedure for evaluating weaving performance was developed. Unlike most existing procedures, the proposed technique evaluates...

An Application of Advanced Technologies for Freeway Traffic Management: An Indiana Case Study

Cassidy, Michael J.
Sinha, Kumares C.
1991

This paper presents a summary of technologies being proposed for an electronic surveillance and control system on the Borman Expressway in Indiana. The system would consist of three elements: 1) Traffic surveillance; 2) Motorist information; and, 3) Congestion management.

Evaluating the Capacity of Freeway Weaving Sections

Wang, Mu-han
Cassidy, Michael J.
Chan, Patrick
May, Adolf D.
1993

The research described in this paper employed simulation modeling and empirical observations in an effort to: (1) Identify the traffic flow phenomena that characterize freeway weaving section capacity; and (2) determine appropriate traffic flow rate values that reflect weaving section capacity. The INTRAS microscopic simulation model was calibrated and validated using empirical data collected at a weaving site. Increasing traffic demands were then sequentially input into repeated simulation runs to identify the boundary between uncongested and congested operation. Where a weaving...

Application of Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks to Automatically Detect Freeway Traffic Incidents

Hsiao, Chien-Hua
Lin, Ching-Teng
Cassidy, Michael
1994

To date, efforts to manage freeway congestion have been seriously impeded by the inability to promptly and reliably detect the presence of traffic incidents. Traditional incident‐detection algorithms distinguish between congested and uncongested operation by comparing measured traffic‐stream parameters with predefined threshold values. Given the range of possible operating conditions in the traffic stream, selecting a single threshold value, and the suitability of that selected threshold, is full of uncertainty. This inherent uncertainty makes fuzzy logic a promising approach to...

An Electronic Surveillance and Control System for Traffic Management on the Borman Expressway. Part II, Calibrating a Simulation Model

Wang, Mu-Han
Cassidy, Michael J.
1995

This report presents a project whose purpose was to calibrate a freeway simulation model to emulate traffic operating conditions on the Borman Expressway. The computer simulation model can then be used to predict impacts created by a host of possible conditions including incident occurrences, maintenance, reconstruction and the deployment of various freeway control and management strategies. The results of the simulation model can be used as a decision-making tool for adopting suitable policies to address operating needs.

Improved Strategies for Deploying Vehicle-Actuated Control at Isolated Signalized Intersections

Cassidy, Michael
Chuang, Yu-Hao
Vitale, Jeff
1995

This research has sought to demonstrate potential benefits from deploying enhanced vehicle actuation strategies at isolated signalized intersections. The work has exploited microscopic, stochastic simulation to evaluate impacts of enhanced vehicle-actuated (VA) control schemes for an array of operating conditions. Simulated outcomes (i.e. average vehicle delays) generated under the enhanced strategies were compared with outcomes resulting from more “conventional VA control policies. Findings from this work suggest that substantial delay reduction generally occurs by exploiting VA...

Evaluating Steady-State Assumption for Highway Queueing System

Son, Young Tae
Cassidy, Michael J.
Modanat, Samer M.
1995

Stochastic queueing methods are often applied to highway systems to estimate performance characteristics such as delay and queue length.

Decision-Making System for Freeway Incident Response Using Sequential Hypothesis Testing Methods

Madanat, Samer M.
Cassidy, Michael J.
Teng, Hua-Liang
Liu, Pen-Chi
1996

Recent research in advanced traffic management systems has emphasized incident detection and response to mitigate nonrecurring congestion. Existing incident response decision-making algorithms do not account for the expected losses associated with false alarms, undetected incidents, and delayed incident response. A freeway incident response decision-making system based on sequential hypothesis testing techniques is presented. The primary feature of this decision-making system is that it minimizes the sum of the expected losses associated with false response, nonresponse, and delayed...

Application of Ordered Probit Techniques to Analyze Ratings of Blissymbol Complexity

Soto, Gloria
Cassidy, Michael
Madanat, Samer
1996

This paper explores the application of ordered probit modeling, an econometric technique commonly used for the analysis of rating data in situations when respondents are asked to rate items (e.g., an object, service, or product), one at a time. To demonstrate the application of this methodology, an existing data set, originally collected to measure the perceived complexities for an array of Blissymbols, was used. Findings from the use of the ordered probit model are compared with those resulting from the earlier research that used regression procedures. Results from the use of ordered...