Travel Behavior

Studies of Vehicle Collisions-A Documentation of the Simulation Codes: SMAC (Simulation Model of Automobile Collisions) Update 1

Chan, Ching-Yao
1999

This document describes part of the work conducted under MOU252 and MOU324, related to the studies of vehicle collisions in vehicle-following operations. This working paper is a detailed documentation of a computer program that is the core element of the simulation tools for vehicle collision dynamics. The program, SMAC (Simulation Model of Automobile Collisions), and its PC-platform version EDSMAC have been used extensively in recent work at PATH to investigate the consequences of vehicle collisions and the effects of vehicle-following parameters on collisions. A copy of the source codes...

User Perceived Benefits with Navigation Systems

Commeignes, Hervé
1991

It has often been assumed that travel time savings are only beneficial to the users of route guidance and navigation systems. In particular, absolute travel time savings have been emphasized, but there has been little interest in relative time savings between equipped and unequipped vehicles. Part 2 of this report investigates to what extent relative travel time savings decrease as the percentage of equipped vehicles increases.In order to compensate for a possible decrease in relative time savings, some other potential services that can be provided by navigation systems are identified in...

Daily Activity and Multimodal Travel Planner: Phase 1 Report

Kitamura, Ryuichi
Chen, Cynthia
1998

Travel constitutes an integral part of our daily life. Only by traveling are we able to engage in a variety of activities at different locations. Since the extension of our movement is restricted by the amount of time that is available and the speed with which we can move, it is important that our travel be efficiently organized such that the time resource can be best utilized to engage in activities in an efficient manner. One approach to achieving this is to choose less congested and faster routes. The use of in-vehicle advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) for this purpose has...

Assistive Devices and Services for the Disabled: Auditory Signage and the Accessible City for Blind or Vision-Impaired Travelers

Golledge, Reginald G.
Marston, James R.
Costanzo, C. Michael
1998

This project (MOU276) represents the first third of a longer project concerning making cities more accessible to some disabled groups by addressing some problems associated with the use of public transit. (The other two-thirds of the larger project is continued as MOU343). The disabled groups targeted in this project include the vision impaired or blind, those with low vision who have difficulty reading distant signs, those who are developmentally disabled, dyslexic, or otherwise print handicapped, those who do not read the English language, the illiterate, and small children. The blind or...

TravInfo Evaluation: Traveler Response Element; TravInfo 817-1717 Caller Study; Phase 2 Results

Koo, Ronald
Yim, Y. B.
2001

TravInfo was a federally funded Field Operational Test (FOT) of the Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) in the San Francisco Bay Area. The general public can obtain most current traveler information through TravInfo's Traveler Advisory Telephone System (TATS) and privately offered information services including traffic Web sites. As part of the TravInfo FOT Evaluation, two waves of TATS callers were surveyed. The first wave of the TATS caller survey was conducted in April 1997. The second wave TATS caller survey was completed in April 1999. This paper presents the findings of the...

Consumer Research on Advanced Traveler Information Systems: TravInfo Field Operational Test

Yim, Youngbin
1997

The paper describes the evaluation framework of the TravInfo project, a field operational test of the San Francisco Bay Area advanced traveler information system. The purpose of the evaluation study is to measure changes in individual travel patterns that result from the TravInfo project and to assess traveler acceptance of and preference for advanced traveler information technology. The anticipated effects of TravInfo on Bay Area travelers were described using some of the economic concepts of supply and demand relationships between information providers and information users. Consumer...

Safety Aspects of Freeway Weaving Sections

Golob, Thomas F.
Recker, Wilfred W.
Alvarez, Veronica M.
2003

One source of vehicle conflict is the freeway weaving section, where a merge and diverge in close proximity require vehicles either entering or exiting the freeway to execute one or more lane changes. Using accident data for a portion of Southern California, we examined accidents that occurred on three types of weaving sections defined in traffic engineering: Type A, where every merging or diverging vehicle must execute one lane change, Type B, where either merging or diverging can be done without changing lanes, and Type C, where one maneuver requires at least two lane changes. We found...

A Tool to Evaluate the Safety Effects of Changes in Freeway Traffic Flow

Golob, Thomas F.
Recker, Wilfred W.
Alvarez, Veronica M.
2003

This research involves the development of a tool that can be used to assess the changes in traffic safety tendencies that result from changes in traffic flow. The tool uses data from single inductive loop detectors, converting 30-second observations of volume and occupancy for multiple freeway lanes into traffic flow regimes. Each regime has a specific pattern of crash types, which were determined through nonlinear multivariate analyses of over 1,000 crashes on freeways in Southern California. These analyses revealed ways in which differences in variances in speeds and volumes across lanes...

TravInfo Evaluation: Traveler Response Element Willingness to Pay for Traveler Information: Analysis of Wave 2 Broad Area Survey

Wolinetz, Louis
Khattak, Asad J.
Yim, Youngbin
2001

TravInfo is a Field Operational Test (FOT) sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and California Department of Transportation. It aimed to develop a multi-modal traveler information system for the San Francisco Bay Area, combining public and private sector talents. The Broad Area Study is part of the TravInfo FOT evaluation. This paper addresses issues on the willingness to pay for traveler information. Two waves of telephone surveys of Bay Area households were conducted, one prior to and one after the Field Operational Test. The initial survey was conducted in November...

Variable Message Signs and Link Flow Evaluation: A Case Study of the Paris Region

Yim, Youngbin
Lygeros, John
1995

SIRIUS (Systeme d'Information Routiere Intelligible aux Usagers) is the largest urban field operational test of the advanced traveler information and automated traffic management system in Europe. With variable message signs, SIRIUS has been in operation in the Paris region since December 1992. This study is a preliminary investigation of the effectiveness of the SIRIUS system in traffic management.The concern of the paper is the extent to which drivers respond to real-time traffic information and the consequential changes in link flow under SIRIUS. Time-series traffic data were analyzed...