Fire hazards threaten human life and property safety. Since it is unrealistic to study human behavior during a real fire hazard, computational tools are a better choice to computational tools are a better choice to simulate fire growth and human behavior for predicting evacuation performance in chaotic emergency situations. Although...
Debris generated after a disaster event must be disposed efficiently for community recovery. This is a significant operation that accounts for up to 27% of the total recovery costs. Generally, debris removal takes place in two phases: the short-term relief phase, which involves debris removal immediately after a disaster to...
Bicyclist safety at urban intersections is a critical element for encouraging an increase in bicycle commuting. With bicycle injury and fatality rates rising due to collisions with vehicles at signalized intersections, increasing the safety of riders continues to be an important consideration when promoting this mode of transportation. Previous research...
This thesis develops a framework for analyzing the application of commuter rail and
bus services between several small urban centers to enhance overall connectivity. The
study includes analyzing specific performance criteria for commuter rail service and
express bus service based on data from existing systems around the U.S. The study...
Highway construction projects require temporary changes in roadway characteristics, such as the number of operational lanes, lane path, lane width, shoulder width, and posted speed limit. These modifications which are often temporary in nature have the potential to impact driving performance. Many research efforts have focused on developing standards to...
Dilemma zones on the approach to high-speed signalized intersections have been identified as a safety problem that can contribute to rear–end and right–angle crashes. However, in situations when a pair of vehicles is caught in the dilemma zone, it is not well understood how the following vehicle’s headway and classification...
The concept of construction industrialization, first raised in the 1960s, refers to the transfer of on-site construction work to an off-site factory to improve quality and reduce cost, time, and safety issues. In some countries, industrialization of construction projects is highly recommended and promoted by governments and local construction institutions...
Signalized intersections often provide pushbuttons to call for pedestrian service to minimize conflicting movements between road users. Signalized midblock crossings typically increase safety for pedestrians in locations with high traffic volumes and multiple lanes in each direction. However, unnecessary vehicular delay occurs from “ghost” pedestrian intervals when someone activates the...
Travel demand has increased due to population growth, increase of vehicle ownership, and development patterns resulting in greater levels of congestion, pollution, and crash frequency. One approach to demand management is to increase the share of trips made by bicycles. With the increase in bicycling rates, there is a critical...
Students in undergraduate engineering programs typically do not synthesize content learned from disparate course work until the end of their final terms of college. As an example, in undergraduate civil engineering programs, transportation engineering concepts (e.g., geometric alignment, asphalt design procedures) and geotechnical engineering concepts (e.g., shear strength of soils,...
Accommodating motor vehicles that are turning (left or right) at signalized intersections requires a careful understanding of the safety and efficiency of design and operational variables. Turning vehicles are the primary collision risk for non-motorized road users at signalized intersections. When turning movements need to be controlled, proper driver response...
It is considered best practice when designing pedestrian access at intersections to provide two curb ramps at each street corner. In Oregon, there are many locations where long ramp runs cause curb ramps to be set back a significant distance from the apex of the intersection corner to meet this...
The Type-II dilemma zone refers to the segment of roadway approaching an
intersection where drivers have difficulty deciding to stop or proceed through at
the onset of the circular yellow (CY) indication. Signalized intersection safety can
be improved when the dilemma zone is correctly identified and steps are taken to...
Driver distraction is a commonly observable phenomenon with a significant effect on the transportation network. Although the negative effects of driver distraction on safety are commonly studied, there has been little effort made to investigate the impacts of distraction on efficiency.
This study will examine driver behavior in standing queues...
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) may have the potential to mitigate a significant proportion of serious crashes which are due to human error or poor decision making behind the wheel. However, there are still many concerns associated with SAE Level 3 AVs that require intervention by a human driver after a take-over...
Every year thousands of people are killed or injured in work zone crashes in the US due to excessive speed, distraction, inattentiveness, low visibility, and other factors. Roadway construction and maintenance operations often occur at night when the traffic volume is low, creating less congestion and delay to the traffic....
The overarching objective of this study is to examine and compare the vulnerabilities of bridges combining effects of earthquake-induced ground shaking, ground failure (e.g., landslides and lateral spreading), and tsunami inundation. A parametric study is performed to understand the sensitivity of economic loss and traffic capacity with respect to the...
Pedestrian distraction at roadway crossings has been correlated with a higher risk of pedestrian-vehicle collisions due to the pedestrian's cognitive, visual, and motor attention being drawn to a wide variety of secondary tasks.
This study is different from previous field studies of pedestrian midblock crossings in that the geometric layout...
At signalized intersections, pedestrians are considered to be amongst the most vulnerable. When in the crosswalk at intersections without protected left-turn phasing, pedestrians are particularly at risk from left-turning vehicles. Until recently, a wide variety of indications were in use across the US to indicate a permissive left-turn condition to...
As e-commerce and urban deliveries spike, there is an increasing demand for curbside loading/unloading space. However, commercial vehicle drivers face numerous challenges while navigating dense urban road networks. Previous literature on the topic of how commercial vehicle drivers make choices about when and where to park is scarce, and data...
When pavement markings on roadways are removed, scarring can occur leaving behind traces of where the marking used to be called ghost lines. These ghost lines can confuse drivers on the roadway and divert their attention from the correct lane markings leading them into the false lane. Previous research has...
A Right-hook (RH) crash is a common type of bicycle-motor vehicle crash that occurs between a right-turning vehicle and through-moving bicycle at an intersection. At signalized intersections, RH crashes can occur at the onset of the green or during the latter portion of the green phase. In spite of the...
Traffic signal countdown timers (TSCT) are innovative, practical and cost effective technologies with the potential to improve efficiency and safety at signalized intersections. The purpose of these devices is to assist motorists in decision making at signalized intersections with real time signal change information. While successful implementation of these devices...
Large truck-involved crashes have a significant impact on both the economy and society. They are associated with high injury severities, high crash costs and contribute to congestion in urban areas. Past studies have investigated the contributing factors of large truck-involved crashes, however a study isolating the spatial and temporal effects...
A right-hook crash is a bicycle-motor vehicle crash between a right-turning motor vehicle and an adjacent through-moving bicycle. This study focuses on right-hook crashes that occur during the latter stage of the circular green indication at signalized intersections with shared right-turn and through lanes. The overall objective was to evaluate...
Considering the deadly impacts of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) crashes on road safety, many previous studies have put in efforts to find the determinants of CMV crash injury severities. However, studies examining the impact of the different number of lanes on CMV crash
injury severities are lacking. Besides, the importance...