Traffic Operations and Management

Multi-Sensor Traffic Data Fusion

Kim, Zu Whan
Skabardonis, Alexander
University of California, Berkeley
California Department of Transportation
2003

In this report, the authors describe a unique surveillance system that was installed on a section of the I-80 freeway in Emeryville California. Known as the Berkeley Highway Laboratory (BHL) , the system consists of eight dual loop detector stations along the freeway section, and at twelve video cameras. In order to process the video data to generate vehicle trajectories, advanced machine vision algorithms were developed. The authors discuss current effort to fuse the loop and video detector data to obtain detailed and accurate information on traffic operating conditions.

Observed and simulated traffic impacts from the 2013 Bay Area Rapid Transit strike

Moylan, Emily
Foti, Fletcher
Skabardonis, Alexander
2016

Despite high costs, many cities build public transit to address regional equity, environmental and economic goals. Although public transit accounts for a minority of trips (∼5%), the impact is widely felt when service is suspended during a strike through excess road demand and slower journeys. In 2013, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers participated in two brief strikes, and the resulting traffic conditions illustrate the value of transit to drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area region. This paper tests the impact of rail transit service interruption on freeway traffic conditions using...

Monitoring the Cost Effectiveness of the Caltrans Freeway Service Patrol (FSP) SB 1 Funded Expansion

Mauch, Michael
Skabardonis, Alexander
McKeever, Benjamin
University of California, Berkeley
University of California Institute of Transportation Studies
2019

California’s Freeway Service Patrol (FSP) is a congestion mitigation program managed in partnership with metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), CHP and Caltrans on California’s urban freeways. The program utilizes a fleet of roving tow and service trucks designed to reduce traffic congestion by efficiently getting disabled vehicles running again, or by quickly towing those vehicles off of the freeway to a designated safe location. Quickly removing motorists and their disabled vehicles from the freeway reduces the chances of further incidents caused by onlookers and impatient drivers....

Modelling the Traffic Behavior at Grade-Separated Interchanges

Skabardonis, A
Printerhall Limited
Traffic Engineering & Control
1985

Grade separation is an essential feature of intersections between motorways and other high-capacity roads. This paper describes the development of a microscopic simulation model to investigate the interactions between traffic and geometric variables at such situations. The model has been integrated within a modular computer program and it has been calibrated and validated with a large data-base. Comparisons with measured data and information from other sources have shown that the model adequately describes the traffic behaviour. (Author/TRRL)

Improving Average Travel Speeds Estimated by Planning Models

Dowling, Richard
Skabardonis, Alexander
1992

Modeling the impact of air quality requires estimating vehicle volumes and average travel speeds in order to estimate air pollutant emissions. Relatively accurate estimates of average vehicle travel speeds can be obtained from existing traffic operations models. However, when the travel demand impacts of the highway project extend over many miles of the freeway and arterial street network, it is not feasible to apply these detailed traffic operations models to the entire area of impact because of their extensive data requirements. Planners then must resort to areawide planning models to...

Improved Modeling Environment for ATMIS

Skabardonis, Alexander
Lieberman, E B
Menaker, Paul
University of California, Berkeley
KLD Associates Incorporated
Korve Engineering Incorporated
California Department of Transportation
1997

This paper presents a new modeling approach in which the WATSim simulation model is interfaced with dynamic traffic assignment algorithms in order to simulate vehicles with route guidance/information systems. This enhanced model can generate origin-destination and path matrices from observed turning movement counts. It also provides comprehensive statistical, graphical and animation outputs of the vehicle movements. The model was applied to the downtown San Francisco Embarcadero network and is shown to be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of Advanced Traffic Management and Information...

Improved Speed-flow Relationships for Planning Applications

Skabardonis, A
Dowling, R
Transportation Research Board
1997

Improved speed-estimation techniques for planning applications were developed and tested. Comparisons with field data and simulation results indicate that the recommended techniques provide better accuracy and consistency with the procedures contained in the 1994 update of the "Highway Capacity Manual". These speed-estimation techniques will improve the accuracy of long-range transportation planning models for predicting travel time, delay, and air-pollutant emissions.

Improved Analysis Methodologies and Strategies for Complete Streets

Fournier, Nicholas
Huang, Amy
Skabardonis, Alexander
University of California, Berkeley
California Department of Transportation
California Business Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
2021

Complete streets movement is a national effort to return to traditional streets in cities to enhance livability, safely, accommodate all modes of travel, provide travel choices, ease traffic congestion, and promote healthier communities. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and several local agencies in the State have developed implementation plans for complete streets. In this project, the authors developed and tested improved strategies and analysis methodologies for complete streets, taking into consideration the emerging advances in technology on control devices and...

Impacts of Weather on Traffic Flow Characteristics of Urban Freeways in Istanbul

Akin, Darcin
Sisiopiku, Virginia P
Skabardonis, Alexander
2011

Speed-flow relationships have been established for different free-flow speeds on urban freeways. However, there have been few research efforts relating real-time traffic flow parameters and weather conditions for different levels of heavy vehicle traffic. This study aims at establishing relationships between speed and volume in freeway sections using Remote Traffic Microwave Sensor (RTMS) data as a function of weather conditions. Historical weather and RTMS detector data (i.e., volume and speed) from two highway corridors in the Istanbul metropolitan area are used for this purpose....

Impacts Assessment of Dynamic Speed Harmonization with Queue Warning: Task 3, Impacts Assessment Report [supporting dataset]

Dowling, R
Skabardonis, A
Barrios, J
Jia, A
Nevers, B
Kittelson & Associates Incorporated
Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
2015

Source: Provided by ITS DataHub (its.dot.gov/data) through the National Transportation Library. The datasets in the .pdf and .zip attached to this record are in support of Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) report FHWA-JPO-15-222, "Impacts Assessment of Dynamic Speed Harmonization with Queue Warning: Task 3, Impacts Assessment Report". The files in these zip files are specifically related to the US-101 Testbed, near San Mateo, CA. The uncompressed and compressed files total 2.0265 GB in size. The files have been uploaded as-is; no further documentation was...