Safety

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) uses ramp meters to manage freeway access on approximately 210 miles of freeways in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Approximately 430 ramp meters have been installed by Mn/DOT, which uses them as a tool to help merge traffic onto freeways and to manage the flow of traffic through bottlenecks.

The study occurred in the fall of 2000, with the results presented to the Legislature and the public in early 2001. The goal of the study was to evaluate and report any relevant facts, comparisons, or statistics concerning traffic flow and safety impacts associated with deactivating system ramp meters for a predetermined amount of time.

The analysis of field data overwhelmingly suggests that ramp metering is a cost-effective investment of public funds for the Twin Cities area. This paper presents the evaluation conclusions, supporting evaluation findings, and recommendations contained in the Minnesota Department of Transportation Twin Cities Ramp Meter Evaluation report

Minnesota Department of Transportation

Cambridge Systematics

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

Photo enforcement has been around for a number of years, but has been getting more attention recently. Across the nation, states are taking diverse approaches to implementation. Legislation has been enacted and enforcement processes are being revised to address deployment of this leading technology. Photo enforcement is an opportunity for department of safety and enforcement personnel to partner with department of transportation (DOT) and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) experts. In many cases the enforcement and DOT industries are working together to make the roadways safer and facilitate smooth traffic flows.

Controversy and misconceptions surround photo enforcement. The motoring public envisions that this enforcement technology is generating large sums of money and taxpayers are suggesting that this type of enforcement approach is a “new tax”. This paper will address factors such as trends, varied implementation results and public relations activities.

BRW Inc.

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

A Pilot Study of Advisory On-Board Vehicle Warning Systems at Railroad Grade Crossings is undertaken as an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) initiative to improve safety at railroad grade crossings. The pilot study aims to evaluate the importance/necessity of providing in-vehicle warnings to the drivers that a train is approaching a railroad grade crossing. The advisory on-board warning system is designed to supplement existing railroad grade crossing warning systems. The issues encountered during the development and pre-deployment phase of the pilot study and their resolutions are discussed in this paper. This study experienced unusual conditions that needed to be overcome before system deployment was possible. Since this pilot study is safety related, it requires a high level of accuracy, reliability, and system performance. It was observed during the system design that one system configuration is not applicable to every crossing and situation. Every crossing has a different layout that requires a unique configuration for the trackside transmitter at that location. The pilot study involved many agencies, thus requiring time and effort for multi-agency coordination.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Office of Planning and Programming

Raytheon Systems Company

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

The Freeway Incident Response Services Tracking (FIRST) system is a project to design and implement an advanced traveler information system and an advanced traffic management system (ATIS/ATMS) to provide data on roadway incidents in Los Angeles County, California, to allied agencies, first responders, and the media, and support incident management by facilitating two-way communication between the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and the entities that are involved in clearing the roadway.

The system advances the state-of-the-art in Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies by using open systems, standards-based designs, and best-of-breed commercial off the-shelf hardware and software. It is designed as a three-tier system employing Web technologies for client interfaces, component-based and asynchronous messaging middleware, and database server backends. The system is designed for extensibility and flexibility so that it can take advantage of changing ATIS/ATMS requirements and technological advancements.

GIS/Trans, Ltd.

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

This paper presents the results of a review of commercial vehicle safety studies conducted to provide a better understanding of the current commercial vehicle safety problem. It outlines the approach used to conduct the review, summarizes the findings and provides suggestions for future studies based on the conclusions reached during the review. It is organized into the following topics:

• Introduction
• Approach
• Findings
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• References

The findings from the review identified strengths and weaknesses in safety analysis in the areas of subject selection, data collection and completeness of study.

The study concluded that improvements can be made in each of these areas. The study provides recommendations on additional areas of study and changes in practice and introduces some new techniques for focusing safety management efforts and research.

The Johns Hopkins University

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida