Proposing and Analyzing the Effects of a Road Work Zone Mobile Application with User Interface and Rerouting on Level of Service

Abstract

Work zones are common on roadways either for construction or maintenance purposes. They usually cause a drop in the capacity, as well as the level of service (LOS) of the road, and result into traffic congestion. In this paper, a free-flow segment of 222 m along the eastbound movement of Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah (SJAS) Highway was studied as it went under road construction. The acceleration lane was closed which resulted in a drop of capacity from 2472 pc/h/ln to 2396 pc/h/ln and dramatic drop in LOS from A to D. The paper proposes a mobile application to improve LOS along roadways with workzones. The proposed application will provide information to the road user along with alternative routes. A survey was done which covered 1025 vehicle users in Bahrain. It aimed to understand and analyze traveler’s willingness to reroute in case of previous knowledge about work zones along their route. The survey showed that 96% of the sample was willing to reroute. Calculations were made based on certain assumptions to get LOS at work zone back to A. It showed that to improve the LOS to A, 50% to 54% of the vehicles along the road should reroute, which is way below 96% and gives us a huge margin of error. In conclusion, it could be said that the proposed application could improve the work zone LOS, when developed and implemented according to the recommendations of this research.