Development of Strategies for Improving Traffic Safety and Operations in Winter

制定改善冬季交通安全和运营的策略

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-05984
• 负责人: Mehran, Babak
• 金额: $ 1.75万
• 依托单位: University of Manitoba
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=709836
• 关键词: Development; Strategies; Improving; Traffic; Safety

Winter driving can be very challenging due to slippery roads and reduced visibility caused by falling and/or blowing snow. Due to reduced road surface friction and limited visibility, drivers are generally reluctant to use the desired acceleration and/or breaking power to react to traffic events. It is also common that pavement markings are completely covered by packed snow, and the effective lane width or the number of available lanes for moving traffic is reduced due to accumulation of snow caused by snow plow operations. These particular conditions suggest significant variations in physical characteristics of road network and driver behavior in winter. A clear understanding of such variations and their influence on traffic flow characteristics and safety are very important for highway agencies to plan for safe, efficient, and effective traffic management policies. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of winter weather conditions on microscopic and macroscopic traffic flow characteristics on highways and intersections and evaluate the operational issues and safety risks caused by winter weather and winter road maintenance operations in order to develop traffic management strategies to minimize these impacts. Study sites will include several highway locations in Alberta and Saskatchewan and signalized intersections in Regina, Saskatchewan. Video surveys will be used to collect traffic data. Weather data will be collected using portable temperature and precipitation sensors installed at study sites. Road surface conditions will be monitored through video cameras and visual inspections. This research will also utilize traffic and weather data available from highway agencies and Environment Canada. A majority of parameters to be analyzed in this study have stochastic properties (e.g. following headway, capacity, etc.). The distribution of the parameter of interest will be obtained through empirical data, and statistical methods will be used to compare the distributions across different weather and road surface conditions. Regression and cross-classification analyses will be conducted to develop predictive models for describing these parameters considering various weather and road surface conditions. The research findings will allow calibration of driver behavior and car-following parameters in traffic micro-simulation models to account for winter weather conditions and provide better insights into seasonal fluctuations of highway capacity and intersection saturation flow rate. Furthermore, the investigations conducted in this study will provide clear guidelines for adjusting signal timing parameters to improve the operations and safety of signalized intersections in winter and assist highway agencies in maximizing the safety benefits of their winter road maintenance operations.

冬季驾驶由于湿滑的道路和降雪而导致的可见性降低，冬季驾驶可能非常具有挑战性。由于道路表面摩擦的降低和可见性有限，驾驶员通常不愿使用所需的加速度和/或断裂能力对交通事件做出反应。通常，人行道标记完全被包装的雪覆盖，并且由于雪犁操作引起的雪的积累，有效的车道宽度或可移动交通车道的数量减少了。这些特殊的条件表明，冬季，道路网络和驾驶员行为的物理特征有显着差异。清楚地了解这种变化及其对交通流量特征和安全性的影响对于高速公路机构计划安全，高效和有效的交通管理政策非常重要。 这项研究的主要目的是研究冬季天气条件对高速公路和十字路口的微观和宏观交通流量特征的影响，并评估冬季天气和冬季道路维护操作引起的操作问题以及安全风险，以制定交通管理策略，以最大程度地减少这些影响。研究地点将包括艾伯塔省和萨斯喀彻温省的几个高速公路地点，并在萨斯喀彻温省的里贾纳（Regina）发出信号交叉点。视频调查将用于收集流量数据。天气数据将使用在研究地点安装的便携式温度和降水传感器收集。路面条件将通过摄像机和视觉检查来监视。这项研究还将利用来自高速公路机构和加拿大环境环境的流量和天气数据。 在这项研究中要分析的大多数参数具有随机特性（例如，在进展，容量等之后）。感兴趣参数的分布将通过经验数据获得，并将使用统计方法来比较在不同天气和道路表面条件下的分布。将进行回归和交叉分类分析，以开发考虑各种天气和道路表面条件的这些参数的预测模型。 该研究结果将允许在交通微仿真模型中校准驾驶员行为和跟踪参数，以说明冬季天气状况，并为高速公路容量和交点饱和流量的季节性波动提供更好的见解。此外，本研究中进行的调查将提供明确的指南，以调整信号正时参数，以改善冬季信号交叉点的操作和安全性，并协助高速公路机构最大程度地提高其冬季道路维护操作的安全益处。