01152293

Component

A good understanding of the relationship between highway performance, such as crash rates and travel delays, and winter road maintenance activities under different winter weather and traffic conditions is essential to the development of cost-effective winter road maintenance policies and standards, operation strategies and technologies. This research is specifically concerned about the mobility benefit of winter road maintenance. A microscopic traffic simulation model is used to investigate the traffic patterns under adverse weather and road surface conditions. A segment of the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) located in the Great Toronto Area, Ontario is used in the simulation study. Observed field traffic data from the study segment was used in the calibration of the simulation model. Different scenarios of traffic characteristics and road surface conditions as a result of weather events and maintenance operations are simulated and travel time is used as a performance measure for the effect of winter snow storms on the mobility of a highway section. The modeling results indicate that winter road maintenance aimed at achieving bare pavement conditions during heavy snowfall could reduce the total traffic delay of the highway by 5 to 36 percent, depending on the level of demand of the highway.

01147878

10-0715

English

16p

2010

Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (3) ; References; Tables (2)

Crash rates; Mobility; Snow and ice control; Snowstorms; Traffic delays; Traffic simulation; Weather conditions; Winter maintenance

Traffic conditions

Toronto (Canada)

Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; I62: Winter Maintenance

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2010 Paper #10-0715

TRIS, TRB

Jan 25 2010 10:20AM