Highway Access Safety Program Evaluation with Uncertain Parameters
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 2
Abstract
Access management in transportation planning can reduce crashes, increase route capacities, and reduce travel times. The literature suggests a need for performance metrics and a decision-aiding framework to guide access management programs across large corridor networks and diverse time horizons. This paper describes a quantitative framework to support access management programs that focus on safety, applying multicriteria analysis, and cost-benefit analysis with parameter uncertainties. The metrics used to assess relative needs at existing access points include crash exposure, crash intensity, traffic exposure, and costs of typical access management activities. Uncertain parameters that influence the estimates of the potential benefits and costs are identified and treated via a numerical interval analysis. The framework is demonstrated at several geographic scales and locations including 7,000 km of highways of a region and its several subregions. The results assist decision makers to prioritize which route segments should be addressed sooner and investigated further by elicitation and collection of additional data, reserving right of way, closing access points, planning new alignments, facilitating developer proffers, etc. This approach that combines multicriteria analysis with cost-benefit analysis is transferable to other topics involving transportation engineering and resource allocation.
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Acknowledgments
The authors received support from the effort part from the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, and the Virginia Department of Transportation. The authors are grateful to Robin Grier, Paul Grasewicsz, Rob Hofrichter, Ben Mannell, Marsha Fiol, Rick Tambellini, John Miller, and Amy O’Leary of the Virginia Department of Transportation. Former University of Virginia students who contributed to the data collection include Shital A. Thekdi, Andrew P. Watson, Natasha L. Hemminger, Philip A. Rinehart, John R. Fitzsimmons, R. John MacKenzie, and Zubin C. George.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 2 • February 2014
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 8, 2013
Accepted: Sep 6, 2013
Published online: Sep 9, 2013
Published in print: Feb 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Apr 28, 2014
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