Safety Models for Rural Freeway Work Zones

Venugopal, Shyam; Tarko, Andrzej P.

doi:10.3141/1715-01

Cited by 36 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…It may also mean that longer lasting work zones with higher traffic volumes exhibit lower crash rates (per unit duration or unit volume) than shorter lasting or less busy work zones. This result confirms the findings by Venugopal and Tarko (9).…”

Section: Monthly Observation Modelsupporting

confidence: 93%

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Best Practices for INDOT-Funded Work Zone Police Patrols

Chen¹,

Tarko²

2012

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JOINT TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PROGRAMThe Joint Transportation Research Program serves as a vehicle for INDOT collaboration with higher education institutions and industry in Indiana to facilitate innovation that results in continuous improvement in the planning, design, construction, operation, management and economic efficiency of the Indiana transportation infrastructure. https://engineering.purdue.edu/JTRP/index_html Published reports of the Joint Transportation Research Program are available at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jtrp/ NOTICEThe contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views and policies of the Indiana Department of Transportation or the Federal Highway Administration. The report does not constitute a standard, specification or regulation.TECHNICAL REPORT STANDARD TITLE PAGE AbstractTransportation agencies across the U.S. are expending a great deal of effort to improve highway work zone safety. Among those efforts is a special fund for work zone enforcement established by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). The allocation of enforcement funding was based on expert knowledge and weights and scores applied to work zone characteristics considered relevant to traffic safety. The objective of the reported project was to develop a rational and defendable tool for programming police enforcement that maximizes the safety benefits of police enforcement in INDOT work zones.To understand what affects work zone safety, the research team carried out an extensive literature review, designed field experiments to evaluate the effect of selected enforcement strategies on drivers' behavior in work zones, and developed speed models incorporating the effect of police enforcement. The estimated speeds were used to derive CMFs that express the effect of the police enforcement strategy on work zone safety. Finally, the research team combined all of the developed components in a method of predicting the costs and the safety benefits in works zones under various enforcement strategies. This last method was included in the optimization tool for programming police enforcement in a group of planned work zones.The described project developed an optimization tool implemented in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with the OpenSolver add-in. The tool is flexible, straightforward, and easy to use. The user should be able to quickly become familiar with the required input, results, and obtained solution. Key Wordswork zone safety, police enforcement, enforcement optimization, Mixed Integer Programming Distribution StatementNo restrictions. This document is available to the public through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BEST PRACTICES FOR INDOT-FUNDED WORK ZONE POLICE PATROLSWork zone safety is a major concern for transportation agencies, especially when more maintenance projects are needed for the aging U.S. highway syste...

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Section: Monthly Observation Modelsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Similar to Venugopal and Tarko (9), in the final model, the work zone length and the total traffic volume were used as exposure variables, as shown below:…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Best Practices for INDOT-Funded Work Zone Police Patrols

Chen¹,

Tarko²

2012

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“…The variables used in previous studies have included lane closure strategies, traffic control devices, signage, traffic volume (Pal and Sinha 1996), length and duration of the work zone, intensity of work, speed limit and driver speed, and enforcement (Venugopal and Tarko 2000).…”

Section: Variable Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the Frequency and Severity of Rear-End Crashes in Work Zones

Srinivasan

Teng

et al. 2013

Traffic Injury Prevention

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Major findings related to the frequency of rear-end crashes include the following: (1) work zones for capacity and pavement improvements have the highest frequency compared to other types of work zones; (2) work zones controlled by flaggers are associated with more rear-end crashes compared to those controlled by arrow boards; and (3) work zones with alternating one-way traffic tended to have more rear-end crashes compared to those with lane shifts. Major findings related to the severity of the rear-end crashes include the following: (1) rear-end crashes associated with alcohol, night, pedestrians, and roadway defects are more severe, and those associated with careless backing, stalled vehicles, slippery roadways, and misunderstanding flagging signals are less severe; (2) truck involvement and a large number of vehicles in a crash are both associated with increased severity, and (3) rear-end crashes that happened in work zones for bridge, capacity, and pavement are likely to be more severe than others.

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“…Hazards in work zones have typically been studied through analyses of historical crash data to identify the factors contributing to the frequency of work zone crashes (Chen and Tarko, 2012;Daniel et al, 2000;Harb et al, 2008;Khattak et al, 2002;Khattak and Targa, 2004;Qi et al, 2013;Venugopal and Tarko, 2000) and their injury severity (Khattak et al, 2002;Khattak and Targa, 2004;Li and Bai, 2008b;Qi et al, 2013). However, the crash data-based approach is often hampered by the lack of detail in official datasets (Chen and Tarko, 2014;Cheng et al, 2012) and the likelihood of under-reporting of work zone crashes (Debnath et al, 2013;Schrock et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Common hazards and their mitigating measures in work zones: A qualitative study of worker perceptions

2015

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Road construction and maintenance activities present challenges for ensuring the safety of workers and the traveling public alike. Hazards in work zones are typically studied using historical crash records but the current study took a qualitative approach by interviewing 66 workers from various work zones in Queensland, Australia. This supplemented and enhanced the limited available data regarding the frequency and nature of work zone crashes in Australia, provided worker insights into contributing factors, and assessed their opinions on the likely effectiveness of current or future approaches to hazard mitigation. Workers may not be aware of objective data regarding effectiveness, but their attitudes and consequent levels of compliance can influence both the likelihood of implementation and the outcomes of safety measures. Despite the potential importance of worker perceptions, they have not been studied comprehensively to date, and thus this study fills a significant gap in the literature. Excessive vehicle speeds, driver distraction and aggression towards roadworkers, working in wet weather, at night and close to traffic stream were among the most common hazards noted by workers. The safety measures perceived to be most effective included police presence, active enforcement, and improving driver awareness and education about work zones. Worker perceptions differed according to their level of exposure to hazards.

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Safety Models for Rural Freeway Work Zones

Cited by 36 publications

References 6 publications

Best Practices for INDOT-Funded Work Zone Police Patrols

Best Practices for INDOT-Funded Work Zone Police Patrols

Analysis of the Frequency and Severity of Rear-End Crashes in Work Zones

Common hazards and their mitigating measures in work zones: A qualitative study of worker perceptions

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