Abstract
Road transportation is a critical mode of transportation because of its mobility characteristics. Road construction work zones (WZ) are widespread on roads because of increased travel demand. Thus, it is necessary to study traffic safety for WZs and regular sections. In this study, traffic safety is analyzed in terms of the conflict probability at selected roads with WZ and without work zone (WWZ) sections along the same road. Vehicular trajectory data for three traffic flow levels (free flow, near capacity, and congestion) were extracted using a newly developed machine learning–based semiautomated trajectory extractor tool. The derived trajectory data from both sections were used to identify the leader-follower vehicle pairs using MATLAB. Two surrogate safety measures were estimated to compute the rear-end conflicts: time-to-collision and deceleration rate to avoid a collision. Hence, the variation of the rear-end conflicts was further examined using the generalized extreme value theory. It is found that the conflict probability is more in the WWZ section than the WZ section, which may be attributed to the variation in speed and acceleration. It is also found that the conflict probability for the WWZ and WZ sections is reduced as the angle between the two vehicles increases. The study results should help highway authorities to implement suitable safety measures to reduce conflicts and crashes in the work zones.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Bali, T. G. 2003. “An extreme value approach to estimating volatility and value at risk.” J. Bus. 76 (1): 83–108. https://doi.org/10.1086/344669.
Budhkar, A. K., and A. K. Maurya. 2017. “Characteristics of lateral vehicular interactions in heterogeneous traffic with weak lane discipline.” J. Mod. Transp. 25 (2): 74–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40534-017-0130-1.
Caliendo, C., and M. Guida. 2012. “Microsimulation approach for predicting crashes at unsignalized intersections using traffic conflicts.” J. Transp. Eng. 138 (12): 1453–1467. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000473.
Chauhan, R., A. Dhamaniya, and S. Arkatkar. 2021a. “Driving behavior at signalized intersections operating under disordered traffic conditions.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2675 (12): 1356–1378. https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981211033863.
Chien, S., and P. Schonfeld. 2001. “Optimal WZ lengths for four-lane highways.” J. Transp. Eng. 127 (2): 124–131. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-947X(2001)127:2(124).
Garber, N. J., and M. Zhao. 2002. “Distribution and characteristics of crashes at different WZ locations in Virginia.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1794 (1): 19–25. https://doi.org/10.3141/1794-03.
Goyani, J., A. B. Paul, N. Gore, S. Arkatkar, and G. Joshi. 2021. “Investigation of crossing conflicts by vehicle type at unsignalized T-intersections under varying roadway and traffic conditions in India.” J. Transp. Eng. Part A: Syst. 147 (2): 05020011. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000479.
Goyani, J., N. Pawar, N. Gore, M. Jain, and S. Arkatkar. 2019. “Investigation of traffic conflicts at unsignalized intersection for reckoning crash probability under mixed traffic conditions.” J. East. Asia Soc. Transp. Stud. 13 (Dec): 2091–2110. https://doi.org/10.11175/easts.13.2091.
Guo, Y., Z. Li, P. Liu, and Y. Wu. 2019. “Modeling correlation and heterogeneity in crash rates by collision types using full Bayesian random parameters multivariate Tobit model.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 128 (Jul): 164–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.04.013.
Heaslip, K., A. Kondyli, D. Arguea, L. Elefteriadou, and F. Sullivan. 2009. “Estimation of freeway WZ capacity through simulation and field data.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2130 (1): 16–24. https://doi.org/10.3141/2130-03.
IRC (Indian Road Congress). 2014. Guidelines on traffic management in WZs. IRC SP 055. New Delhi, India: IRC.
Jiang, X., and H. Adeli. 2003. “Freeway WZ traffic delay and cost optimization model.” J. Transp. Eng. 129 (3): 230–241. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-947X(2003)129:3(230).
Khattak, A. J., A. J. Khattak, and F. M. Council. 2002. “Effects of WZ presence on injury and non-injury crashes.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 34 (1): 19–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-4575(00)00099-3.
Killi, D. V., and P. Vedagiri. 2014. “Proactive evaluation of traffic safety at an unsignalized intersection using micro-simulation.” J. Traffic Logist. Eng. 2 (2): 209–218. https://doi.org/10.12720/jtle.2.2.140-145.
Mahmud, S. S., L. Ferreira, M. S. Hoque, and A. Tavassoli. 2017. “Application of proximal surrogate indicators for safety evaluation: A review of recent developments and research needs.” IATSS Res. 41 (4): 153–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iatssr.2017.02.001.
Mathew. 2013. “Traffic data extractor.” Accessed May 20, 2013. https://www.civil.iitb.ac.in/tvm/tde2/.
Miller, L., F. Mannering, and D. M. Abraham. 2009. “Effectiveness of speed control measures on night-time construction and maintenance projects.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 135 (7): 614–619. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000018.
MoRTH (Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India). 2018. Road accidents in India 2018. New Delhi, India: MoRTH.
Pawar, N., N. Gore, and S. Arkatkar. 2019. “Influence of driving environment on safety at un-signalized T-intersection under mixed traffic conditions.” In Innovative research in transportation infrastructure, 23–31. Singapore: Springer.
Peesapati, L. N., M. P. Hunter, and M. O. Rodgers. 2013. “Evaluation of post encroachment time as surrogate for opposing left-turn crashes.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2386 (1): 42–51. https://doi.org/10.3141/2386-06.
Raju, N., S. Arkatkar, and G. Joshi. 2020. “Effect of construction WZ on traffic stream parameters using vehicular trajectory data under mixed traffic conditions.” J. Transp. Eng. Part A: Syst. 146 (6): 05020002. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000353.
Raju, N., P. Kumar, S. Arkatkar, and G. Joshi. 2019. “Determining risk-based safety thresholds through naturalistic driving patterns using trajectory data on expressways.” Saf. Sci. 119: 117–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.01.017.
Rao, V. T., and V. R. Rengaraju. 1997. “Probabilistic model for conflicts at urban uncontrolled intersection.” J. Transp. Eng. 123 (1): 81–84. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-947X(1997)123:1(81).
Sarasua, W. A., W. J. Davis, M. A. Chowdhury, and J. H. Ogle. 2006. “Estimating interstate highway capacity for short-term WZ lane closures: Development of methodology.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1948 (1): 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198106194800106.
Tak, S., S. Kim, and H. Yeo. 2015. “Development of a deceleration-based surrogate safety measure for rear-end collision risk.” IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 16 (5): 2435–2445. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2015.2409374.
Tarko, A. P. 2018. “Estimating the expected number of crashes with traffic conflicts and the Lomax Distribution—A theoretical and numerical exploration.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 113 (Apr): 63–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2018.01.008.
Wang, C., C. Xu, and Y. Dai. 2019. “A crash prediction method based on bivariate extreme value theory and video-based vehicle trajectory data.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 123 (Feb): 365–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2018.12.013.
Yeom, C., A. Hajbabaie, B. J. Schroeder, C. Vaughan, X. Xuan, and N. M. Rouphail. 2015. “Innovative WZ capacity models from nationwide field and archival sources.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2485 (1): 51–60. https://doi.org/10.3141/2485-07.
Zheng, L., and T. Sayed. 2019. “A full Bayes approach for traffic conflict-based before–after safety evaluation using extreme value theory.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 131 (Oct): 308–315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.07.014.
Zhou, H., and F. Huang. 2013. “Development of traffic safety evaluation method based on simulated conflicts at signalized intersections.” Procedia-Social Behav. Sci. 96 (Nov): 881–885. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.100.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 149 • Issue 4 • April 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 31, 2021
Accepted: Oct 11, 2022
Published online: Jan 18, 2023
Published in print: Apr 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jun 18, 2023
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
Cited by
- Ashutosh Kumar, Abhisek Mudgal, Defining Traffic Conflict in Nonlane-Based Traffic Conditions: An Extreme Value Approach, Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 10.1061/JTEPBS.TEENG-8037, 150, 9, (2024).
- Bo Wang, Tianyi Chen, Chi Zhang, Yiik Diew Wong, Hong Zhang, Yunhao Zhou, Toward safer highway work zones: An empirical analysis of crash risks using improved safety potential field and machine learning techniques, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 10.1016/j.aap.2023.107361, 194, (107361), (2024).
- Sen Ma, Jiangbi Hu, Ronghua Wang, Impact of Transition Areas on Driving Workload and Driving Behavior in Work Zones: A Naturalistic Driving Study, Applied Sciences, 10.3390/app132111669, 13, 21, (11669), (2023).