Measuring Horizontal Curve Vehicle Trajectories and Speed Profiles: Pneumatic Road Tube and Video Methods
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 3
Abstract
Horizontal curves present drivers with numerous tasks that, if not performed while approaching and negotiating the curve, may result in a roadway departure crash. A vehicle’s lateral position within the lane and its speed are two indicators of interest from safety and operational perspectives. These can and have been measured simultaneously at multiple locations along the curve. However, researchers face the challenge of collecting operational data while minimizing impacts on driver behavior, and developing robust, efficient, and accurate means to obtain the data. This paper presents the findings of a series of pilot studies on closed and open courses that investigated the effectiveness and accuracy of pneumatic road tubes and digital video cameras for collecting such data. Closed-course studies investigated a single data collection station setup, whereas an open-course study investigated multiple data collection stations on a horizontal curve. The data were reduced manually and automatically, and tests were performed to evaluate the statistical significance of the results. In general, the pilot studies show that pneumatic road tubes provide a higher level of accuracy than video data. Other findings include that drivers moved towards the centerline of the roadway overall and even more so when the presence of video equipment. It was also found that vehicle mean speeds at the center of the curve were lower with an increase amount of data site-based vehicle data collection equipment present.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Susan Chrysler, Jeremy Johnson, and Jeff Miles of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) for their technical assistance; the Institute for Transportation (InTrans) at Iowa State University for funding the use of the traffic counters and video trailer; and, finally, the City of Ames, Iowa, for facilitating data collection on roadways in its jurisdiction.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 3 • March 2013
Pages: 255 - 265
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 9, 2011
Accepted: Sep 10, 2012
Published online: Sep 13, 2012
Published in print: Mar 1, 2013
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