Roads/Highways

High Occupancy Vehicle/Toll Lanes: How Do They Operate and Where Do They Make Sense?

Dahlgren, Joy
1999

Motivated by the need for better utilization of existing high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and the potential of high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lanes to increase utilization, this paper examines the circumstances in which HOT lanes could provide a more desirable alternative to HOV lanes. First, it compares the HOT and HOV lane concepts, showing how they are similar and how they differ. Both involve finding some type of equilibrium in which no additional people are motivated to use the lane. However, in the case of the HOT lane, the agency operating the facility can affect the equilibrium point...

Evaluation Methods for Measuring the Value of ITS Services and Benefits from Implementation: Part X Freeway Service Patrols

Levinson, David
Parthasarathi, Pavithra Kandadai
2001

The goal of our report is to determine the value that people place on the benefits offered by freeway service patrols in comparison to private assistance services and how much they would be willing to pay to avoid being stranded when their vehicle breaks down on the freeway. The report investigates the factors that contribute to people choosing to rely on the highway assistance services in comparison to the private assistance services. The studies conducted so far have focused on the effectiveness of the freeway service patrol whereas this report analyzes the factors that influence people...

Video-based Vehicle Signature Analysis and Tracking System Phase 2: Algorithm Development and Preliminary Testing

MacCarley, Arthur C.
2001

This report describes the results of the PATH/Caltrans-funded project Video-Base Signature Analysis and Tracking (V2SAT) System, Phase 2 Algorithm Development and Preliminary Testing. The V2SATSystem was conceived in 1995 by Loragen Systems, of San Luis Obispo, California, as a means for non-intrusively tracking individual vehicles on freeways for data collection purposes. The concept involves the use of computer vision methods to make simple optical measurements on digitized real-time images of each vehicle on the freeway. A conventional color video camera serves as the primary sensor....

Incident Management with Advanced Traveller Information Systems

Al-Deek, Haitham
Kanafani, Adib
1991

Advanced Traveller Information Systems (ATIS) can be used to collect and disseminate dynamic information about travel times on highway links. One of the potential uses of these systems is to manage incidents. The objective of this research is to showunder what incident conditions is it relevant to provide real time traffic information to travellers.A model that uses graphical queueing techniques is utilized to define cases when ATIS is beneficial and cases when it is not, and to evaluate its benefits as measured by travel time savings. The model is applied to a simple road network with two...

An Economic Analysis Of Network Deployment And Application To Road Pricing

Levinson, David
1998

This paper develops an economic framework for developing strategies necessary to deploy networks, and applies the framework to the deployment of road pricing. The cost structure of highways are discussed. A graphical method for measuring welfare with road pricing is presented. The relationship of space and financing mechanism is reviewed. A network model of the economy is presented. This is followed by a discussion of network externalities, and how those relate to both the deployment and emergence of technologies. Finally, the deployment of three main elements relating to road pricing: use...

TravInfo Evaluation (Technology Element) Traveler Information Center (TIC) Study: Operator Response Time Analysis

Miller, Mark A.
Loukakos, Dimitri
2000

TravInfo (TM) is an advanced traveler information system for the San Francisco Bay Area that began operation in September 1996 under a public/private partnership. The public sector component centers on the Traveler Information Center (TIC), TravInfo (TM)'s information gathering, processing, and dissemination hub. For two years, until September 1998, TravInfo (TM) was a Field Operational Test (FOT) sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration. During the FOT, the TIC was evaluated. This report documents the analysis of operator response time. Response times remained stable throughout the...

Major Failure Events of Automated Highway Systems: Three Scenarios from the Driver’s Perspective

Tsao, H.-S. Jacob
Plocher, Thomas A.
Zhang, Wei-Bin
Shladover, Steven E.
1997

Automated Highway Systems (AHS) have the potential for offering large capacity and safety gains without requiring significant amounts of additional right-of-way. Since the general public will be the users of the AHS, human factors must play a pivotal role in the research and development of AVCS technologies and AHS operation. In two companion reports, three attributes critical to AHS human factors were identified and seven scenarios featuring variations in these attributes proposed. To ensure the identification of all major compounding attribute combinations, detailed operational events,...

Whence Induced Demand: How Access Affects Activity

Levinson, David
Kanchi, Seshasai
2000

Additional highway capacity, by increasing travel speed, affects the individual share of time within a 24-hour budget allocated to various activities (time spent at and traveling to home, shop, work and other), some activities will be undertaken more, others less. This paper extends previous research that identified and quantified induced demand in terms of vehicle miles traveled, by considering questions of what type of demand is induced and which activities are consequently reduced. This paper uses the 1990 and 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey and Federal Highway...

A Method for Relating Type of Crash to Traffic Flow Characteristics on Urban Freeways

Golob, Thomas F.
Recker, Wilfred W.
2003

A method is developed to determine how crash characteristics are related to traffic flow conditions at the time of occurrence. Crashes are described in terms of the type and location of the collision, the number of vehicles involved, movements of these vehicles prior to collision, and severity. Traffic flow is characterized by central tendencies and variations of traffic flow and flow/occupancy for three different lanes at the time and place of the crash. The method involves nonlinear canonical correlation applied together with cluster analyses to identify traffic flow regimes with...

Institutional, Organizational and Market Aspects of Successful ITS Deployment: A Case Study Analysis

Conroy, Patrick
2003

This research follows on a previous study to explore key aspects of successful Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) deployment within existing institutional, organizational and market environments. The researcher developed three additional case studies of successful ITS deployment in the U.S. and Europe, and revisited one case from the previous work. Results from literature searches and surveys were analyzed, and findings on institutional, organizational and market factors are presented. Key words: ITS, deployment, institutional, value, business models, benefits, highway capacity