Abstract: Each year more than 40,000 people die as a result of highway crashes, and 1 in 8 of those fatalities involve commercial motor vehicles. USDOT has set an ambitious goal of a 50 percent reduction in truck-related facilities by the end of this decade. Meeting that goal will involve finding ways of improving the performance of all elements of the system – the driver, the roadway, and the ...

Featured in this pilot experimental study is the construction and design of an instrumented vehicle that is able to capture vehicle trajectory data with an extremely high level of accuracy and time resolution. Once constructed and properly instrumented, the various data collection systems were integrated with one another and a driving experiment was conducted on Northern Virginia roadways with ...

In the U.S., the rise in motorized vehicle travel has contributed to serious societal, environmental, economic, and public health problems. These problems have increased the interest in encouraging non-motorized modes of travel (walking and bicycling). The current study contributes toward this objective by identifying and evaluating the importance of attributes influencing bicyclists’ route cho...

Pervasive smart computing environments make people get accustomed to convenient and secure services. The overall goal of this research is to classify vehicles along the I215 freeway in Salt Lake City, USA. This information will be used to predict future roadway needs and the expected life of a roadway. The classification of vehicles will be performed by a synthesis of multiple sets of features....

The importance of increments to an existing highway system depends upon the values they add to the pre-existing network. Over 50 years ago, Mohring [1965] suggested this logic for planning optimal highway investment programs. Moreover he argued it could be implemented by measuring the quasi-rents generated by specific additions to an existing roadway system. To our knowledge no one has managed ...

In-vehicle music retrieval systems are becoming more and more popular. Previous studies have shown that they pose a real hazard to drivers when the interface is a tactile one which requires multiple entries and a combination of manual control and visual feedback. Voice interfaces exist as an alternative. Such interfaces can require either multiple or single conversational turns. In this study, ...

Accurate prediction of traffic signal duration for roadway junction is a challenging problem due to the dynamic nature of traffic flows. Though supervised learning can be used, parameters may vary across roadway junctions. In this paper, we present a computer vision guided expert system that can learn the departure rate (μ) of a given traffic junction modeled using traditional queuing theory. F...

Monitoring of roof activity is a primary measure adopted in the prevention of roof collapse accidents and functions to optimize and support the design of roadways in underground coalmines. However, traditional monitoring measures, such as using mechanical extensometers or electronic gauges, either require arduous underground labor or cannot function properly in the harsh underground environment...

Roadway networks span large distances and can be difficult to monitor. Most efforts to collect roadway usage data either require a large fixed infrastructure or are labor intensive. Technological advances in electronics and communication have recently enabled an alternative, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). UAVs capable of carrying sensors and communications hardware to relay data to the ground...