Trucks

The Effects of Truck Driver Wages and Working Conditions on Highway Safety: A Case Study

Rodriguez, DA
Rocha, M
Khattak, AJ
Belzer, MH
2006

The role that human capital and occupational factors play in influencing driver safety outcomes has gained increased attention from trucking firms and policy-makers. This paper examines the role of these factors, in addition to demographic factors, in influencing crash frequency at the driver level. A unique driver-level dataset from a large truckload firm collected over a period of 26 months is used for estimating regression models of crash counts. Based on estimates from a zero inflated Poisson regression model, results suggest that human capital and occupational factors, such as...

Parameter Estimation and Command Modification for Longitudinal Control of Heavy Vehicles

Bae, Hong S.
Gerdes, J. Christian
2003

Commercial heavy vehicles, unlike passenger vehicles, display huge variation in parameters such as vehicle mass. Coupled with lower actuation authorities (engine and brake capabilities), these variations can induce actuator saturation even in moderately demanding maneuvers, presenting challenge to the task of maintaining string stability in a platoon formation of heavy trucks. A new control scheme is proposed to put on-line bounds, or artificial saturation, on command signals via parameter estimation such that all members in a platoon can follow the reference commands without saturating...

Workzone Safety Improvements through Enhanced Warning Signal Devices

Christianson, Kent
Greenhouse, Daniel
Cohn, Theodore
Kim, Roy Young
Chow, Christina
2008

The high incidence of accidents associated with work zones suggests that current warning lights and signals have been in need of improvement. In this project we have developed and tested an improved emergency warning light intended specifically for Caltrans work zone vehicles, and an enhanced rear warning light for shadow trucks, both intended to improve visibility and conspicuity, and to reduce reaction times for drivers approaching the work zone.

Demonstration of Automated Heavy-Duty Vehicles

Shladover, Steve E.
Lu, Xiao-Yun
Song, Bongsob
Dickey, Susan
Nowakowski, Christopher
Howell, Adam
Bu, Fanping
Marco, David
Tan, Han-Shue
Nelson, David
2006

This project was created in order to continue progress toward a future in which vehicle automation technologies are able to improve transportation operations. In the wake of the termination of the National Automated Highway Systems Consortium (NAHSC) program in 1998, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) created The Phoenix Project to bring together the organizations that remained interested in this future vision. The discussions within The Phoenix Project focused on the opportunities that could be gained from earlier deployment of automation technologies on transit buses...

Aerodynamic Forces on Truck Models, Including Two Trucks in Tandem

Hammache, Mustapha
Michaelian, Mark
Browand, Fred
2001

The present wind tunnel experiment describes 6-component force and moment data measured for both the cab and the trailer of a simplified model truck. Forces and moments are presented in coefficient form. The cab is sufficiently smooth that no flow separation occurs at zero yaw. The trailer has rounded forward vertical edges and sharp upper and lower edges. Both cab and trailer have wheels. The test matrix includes variation of the cab-trailer gap, and the yaw angle between the model plane of symmetry and the axis of the wind tunnel. The yaw angle is meant to account for the presence of an...

Safety Performance and Robustness of Heavy Vehicle AVCS

Yih, Paul
Satyan, Krishna
Gerdes, J. Christian
2003

Commercial heavy vehicle research at the California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) program has focused on the development of controllers for partially to fully automated driving environments. Safe performance of Advanced Vehicle Control Systems (AVCS) must be demonstrated for a wide range of operating conditions and truck configurations to avoid any one of the many failure modes-such as rollover or jackknifing-common to articulated heavy vehicles. For this purpose, a multi-body dynamic model of a tractor semitrailer has been developed using a commercially available...

Safety Performance and Robustness of Heavy Vehicle AVCS

Taylor, R. Jemonde
Yih, Paul
Gerdes, J. Christen
2005

Dynamically, heavy trucks are inherently different than passenger cars. In addition to the increase rollover risk arising from an elevated center of gravity height, heavy trucks possess additional failure modes such as jackknifing and excessive trailer swing. As a response to these issues, significant research has been performed in the last three decades to establish safety metrics for heavy trucks based on dynamic testing. This research has had an impact on determining acceptable size and weight restrictions for heavy vehicles and on the actual design of heavy trucks for increased safety...

Evaluate High Potential Areas for Overweight Trucks and Truck Accidents in California

Huang, Jihua
Chan, Ching-Yao
Jang, Kitae
2013

To increase operational efficiency, reduce congestion, and meet federal requirements concerning truck size and weight limits, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is exploring new plans and feasible projects designed to increase enforcement and reduce pavement damage due to overweight trucks. Installation of Weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems or Virtual Weigh Station (VWS) by Caltrans will provide information to the California Highway Patrol (CHP) that they can use to better enforce commercial vehicle laws in those areas. To support the effective deployment of WIM/VWIM...

Development of a Heavy-Duty Diesel Modal Emissions and Fuel Consumption Model

Barth, Matthew
Younglove, Theodore
Scora, George
2005

There have been significant improvements in recent years in transportation and emissions modeling, in order to better evaluate transportation operational effects and associated vehicle emissions. In particular, instantaneous or modal emissions models have been developed for a variety of light-duty vehicles. To date, most effort has focused primarily on developing these models for light-duty vehicles with less effort devoted to Heavy-Duty Diesel (HDD) vehicles. Although HDD vehicles currently make up only a fraction of the total vehicle population, they are major contributors to the...

Industry Needs and Opportunities for Truck Platooning

Shladover, Steven E
Campbell, Robert
Kailas, Aravind
Boyd, Stephen
Torrey, Ford
2015

Representatives of the trucking industry have been surveyed to try to identify their needs and concerns related to truck platooning systems. These surveys revealed the need to provide clearer and more comprehensive descriptions of the truck platooning concepts to ensure that the respondents understand what it is and how it works. The fleet managers tended to be more receptive to truck platooning than the drivers, and even those respondents who had some prior experience driving trucks with adaptive cruise control (ACC) and forward collision warning systems were no more receptive to truck...