Impact of Fog Conditions on Lane-Level Speeds on Freeways
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 146, Issue 9
Abstract
Few studies have focused on the impacts of fog conditions on lane-based speeds on freeways. To explore speed differences and to predict speeds under fog conditions, this paper analyzed the historical traffic data and meteorological data at two freeway sections in Shanghai, China. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to compare speed distributions between the different levels of visibility. Multiple linear regression models for two sections with different numbers of lanes were established to predict speeds, in which lane number was used as an explanatory variable. It was found that the impacts of reduced visibility on speed distributions and speeds vary with visibility level, lane number, type of vehicle, day of the week, time of day, and the number of lanes. More importantly, the impacts of reduced visibility on mean speeds and speed distributions are different at sites with different numbers of lanes. The results can assist traffic management agencies to better implement variable speed limits for the fine management of lane levels under fog conditions.
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 generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions. The funding agency does not allow the data to be open to the public without their permission.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFE0102800).
References
Aarts, L., and I. V. Schagen. 2006. “Driving speed and the risk of road crashes: A review.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 38 (2): 215–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2005.07.004.
Agarwal, M., T. H. Maze, and R. Souleyrette. 2005. “Impacts of weather on urban freeway traffic flow characteristics and facility capacity.” In Proc., 2005 Mid-Continent Transportation Research Symp., 1–14. Ames, IA: Iowa State Univ.
Akin, D., V. P. Sisiopiku, and A. Skabardonis. 2011. “Impacts of weather on traffic flow characteristics of urban freeways in Istanbul.” Procedia-Social Behav. Sci. 16: 89–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.432.
Angel, M. L., T. Sando, D. Chimba, and V. Kwigizile. 2014. “Effects of rain on traffic operations on Florida freeways.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2440 (1): 51–59. https://doi.org/10.3141/2440-07.
Bartlett, A. P., W. Lao, Y. Zhao, and A. W. Sadek. 2013. “Impact of inclement weather on hourly traffic volumes in Buffalo, New York.” In Proc., Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting. Washington, DC: TRB Committee AH010 Surface Transportation Weather.
Bekhor, S., T. Lotan, V. Gitelman, and S. Morik. 2013. “Free-flow travel speed analysis and monitoring at the national level using global positioning system measurements.” J. Transp. Eng. 139 (12): 1235–1243. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000607.
Billot, R., N.-E. E. Faouzi, and F. D. Vuyst. 2009. “Multilevel assessment of the impact of rain on drivers’ behavior: Standardized methodology and empirical analysis.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2107 (1): 134–142. https://doi.org/10.3141/2107-14.
Camacho, F. J., A. García, and E. Belda. 2010. “Analysis of impact of adverse weather on freeway free-flow speed in Spain.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2169 (1): 150–159. https://doi.org/10.3141/2169-16.
Cambridge Systematics. 2005. Traffic congestion and reliability: Trends and advanced strategies for congestion mitigation. Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration.
Cheng, W., G. S. Gill, T. Sakrani, D. Ralls, and X. Jia. 2018. “Modeling the endogeneity of lane-mean speeds and lane-speed deviations using a Bayesian structural equations approach with spatial correlation.” Transp. Res. Part A: Policy Pract. 116 (Oct): 220–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2018.06.014.
Datla, S., and S. Sharma. 2010. “Variation of impact of cold temperature and snowfall and their interaction on traffic volume.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2169 (1): 107–115. https://doi.org/10.3141/2169-12.
Deshpande, C., and A. Kamra. 2004. “The atmospheric electric conductivity and aerosol measurements during fog over the Indian Ocean.” Atmos. Res. 70 (2): 77–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2004.01.001.
Dhaliwal, S. S., X. Wu, J. Thai, and X. Jia. 2017. “Effects of rain on freeway traffic in Southern California.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2616 (1): 69–80. https://doi.org/10.3141/2616-08.
Ding, X., J. Dai, J. Wang, and C. Xie. 2010. “A study on influencing law of traffic safety on foggy expressway.” Highway 6 (1): 152–158.
Donaher, G. 2014. “Impact of winter road conditions on highway speed and volume.” dissertation, Master of Applied Science in Civil Engineering, Univ. of Waterloo.
FHWA (Federal Highway Administration). 2019. “How do weather events impact roads?.” Accessed June 10, 2019. https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/Weather/q1_roadimpact.htm.
Hablas, H. E. 2007. “A study of inclement weather impacts on freeway free-flow speed.” dissertation, Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Hanbali, R. M., and D. A. Kuemmel. 1993. “Traffic volume reductions due to winter storm conditions.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1387 (1): 159–164.
Hassan, H. M., and M. A. Abdel-Aty. 2013. “Predicting reduced visibility related crashes on freeways using real-time traffic flow data.” J. Saf. Res. 45 (Jun): 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2012.12.004.
Heshami, S., L. Kattan, Z. Gong, and S. Aalami. 2019. “Deterministic and stochastic freeway capacity analysis based on weather conditions.” J. Transp. Eng., Part A: Syst. 145 (5): 04019016. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000232.
Jia, Z., C. Chen, B. Coifman, and P. Varaiya. 2001. “The PeMS algorithms for accurate, real-time estimates of g-factors and speeds from single-loop detectors.” In Proc., 2001 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems, 536–541. New York: IEEE.
Jones, E. R., and M. E. Goolsby. 1970. “The environmental influence of rain on freeway capacity.” In Proc., Highway Research Record. Washington DC: Committee on Highway Capacity of Transportation Research Board.
Kang, H., Y. Li, and C. Ruan. 2019. “Freeway variable speed limit system based on traffic meteorological environment monitoring.” In Proc., 3rd Int. Conf. on Photonics and Optical Engineering. Bellingham, WA: Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers.
Kang, J. J., R. Ni, and G. J. Andersen. 2008. “Effects of reduced visibility from fog on car-following performance.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2069 (1): 9–15. https://doi.org/10.3141/2069-02.
Keay, K., and I. Simmonds. 2005. “The association of rainfall and other weather variables with road traffic volume in Melbourne, Australia.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 37 (1): 109–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2004.07.005.
Knapp, K. K., and L. D. Smithson. 2000. “Winter storm event volume impact analysis using multiple-source archived monitoring data.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1700 (1): 10–16. https://doi.org/10.3141/1700-03.
Kwon, T. J., L. Fu, and C. Jiang. 2013. “Effect of winter weather and road surface conditions on macroscopic traffic parameters.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2329 (1): 54–62. https://doi.org/10.3141/2329-07.
Kyte, M., Z. Khatib, P. Shannon, and F. Kitchener. 2001. “Effect of weather on free-flow speed.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1776 (1): 60–68. https://doi.org/10.3141/1776-08.
Lamm, R., E. M. Choueiri, and T. Mailaender. 1990. “Comparison of operating speeds on dry and wet pavements of two-lane rural highways.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1280 (8): 199–207.
Li, C., X. Liu, J. Rong, and S. Wu. 2014. “Characteristics of vehicle speed for expressway under different visibility condition.” J. Transp. Syst. Eng. Inf. Technol. 14 (6): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1570-6672(13)60143-9.
Liang, W. L., M. Kyte, F. Kitchener, and P. Shannon. 1998. “Effect of environmental factors on driver speed: A case study.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1635 (1): 155–161. https://doi.org/10.3141/1635-21.
Lyu, P., Y. Lin, L. Wang, and X. Yang. 2017. “Variable speed limit control for delay and crash reductions at freeway work zone area.” J. Transp. Eng., Part A: Syst. 143 (12): 04017062. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000099.
Ma, C., W. Hao, F. Pan, and W. Xiang. 2018a. “Road screening and distribution route multi-objective robust optimization for hazardous materials based on neural network and genetic algorithm.” PLoS One 13 (6): e0198931. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198931.
Ma, C., W. Hao, W. Xiang, and W. Yan. 2018b. “The impact of aggressive driving behavior on driver-injury severity at highway-rail grade crossings accidents.” J. Adv. Transp. 2018: 10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9841498.
Ma, C., D. Yang, J. Zhou, Z. Feng, and Q. Yuan. 2019. “Risk riding behaviors of urban e-bikes: A literature review.” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 16 (13): 2308. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132308.
Myers, R. H. 1990. Classical and modern regression with applications. Belmont, CA: Duxbury.
Pei, X., S. C. Wong, Y. C. Li, and N. N. Sze. 2012. “Full Bayesian method for the development of speed models: Applications of GPS probe data.” J. Transp. Eng. 138 (10): 1188–1195. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000428.
Peng, Y., M. Abdel-Aty, J. Lee, and Y. Zou. 2018. “Analysis of the impact of fog-related reduced visibility on traffic parameters.” J. Transp. Eng., Part A: Syst. 144 (2): 04017077. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000094.
Rakha, H., M. Farzaneh, M. Arafeh, and E. Sterzin. 2008. “Inclement weather impacts on freeway traffic stream behavior.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2071 (1): 8–18. https://doi.org/10.3141/2071-02.
Roh, H.-J., S. Sharma, and P. K. Sahu. 2016. “Modeling snow and cold effects for classified highway traffic volumes.” KSCE J. Civ. Eng. 20 (4): 1514–1525. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-015-0236-0.
Smith, B. L., K. G. Byrne, R. B. Copperman, S. M. Hennessy, and N. J. Goodall. 2004. “An investigation into the impact of rainfall on freeway traffic flow.” In Proc., 83rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Sumner, R., C. Baguley, and J. Burton. 1977. Driving in fog on the M4. Berkshire, UK: Crowthorne.
Tanner, J. C. 1952. “Effect of weather on traffic flow.” Nature 169 (4290): 107. https://doi.org/10.1038/169107a0.
Wang, X., M. Seraj, Y. Bie, T. Z. Qiu, and L. Niu. 2016. “Implementation of variable speed limits: Preliminary test on Whitemud Drive, Edmonton, Canada.” J. Transp. Eng. 142 (12): 05016007. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000895.
Wang, Y., and J. Luo. 2017. “Study of rainfall impacts on freeway traffic flow characteristics.” Transp. Res. Procedia 25: 1533–1543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2017.05.180.
Weng, J., L. Liu, and J. Rong. 2013. “Impacts of snowy weather conditions on expressway traffic flow characteristics.” Discrete Dyn. Nat. Soc. 2013: 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/791743.
Zhang, Y., and P. A. Ioannou. 2017. “Combined variable speed limit and lane change control for highway traffic.” IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 18 (7): 1812–1823. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2016.2616493.
Zhu, F., and S. V. Ukkusuri. 2014. “Accounting for dynamic speed limit control in a stochastic traffic environment: A reinforcement learning approach.” Transp. Res. Part C: Emerging Technol. 41 (Apr): 30–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2014.01.014.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 146 • Issue 9 • September 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 19, 2019
Accepted: Jan 2, 2020
Published online: Jul 6, 2020
Published in print: Sep 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Dec 6, 2020
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.