01473838

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2386-02

http://scholar.google.com...ntos&publication_year=2013

Control of traffic by a variable speed limit (VSL) has been researched for a long time, but there is a lack of consensus on its safety and operational benefits and on the impact of driver compliance. This study provides quantitative evaluations of these benefits and shows the importance of driver compliance with VSLs. VISSIM and the technique of simulated vehicle conflicts (Surrogate Safety Assessment Model) were used in the study. To validate the safety analysis, an attempt was made to correlate the simulated vehicle conflicts with historic crashes. Three scenarios of traffic conditions were considered: heavily congested, lightly congested, and uncongested. Each scenario was further examined under four driver compliance levels: low, medium, high, and very high. The results confirmed that the VSL had safety and operational benefits for motorway traffic. The system had the highest safety benefits during highly congested traffic conditions, followed by lightly congested conditions, and the least during uncongested conditions. Moreover, the system had the highest operational benefits during lightly congested traffic conditions, little benefit during uncongested conditions, and no benefit during heavily congested conditions. It was also found that the safety benefits of VSL were not at the expense of an increase in travel time. However, these benefits showed significant variations that depended on drivers’ level of compliance with the system. The study concludes that the success of the VSL is highly dependent on the level of driver compliance.

01514599

13-0138

English

pp 7–15

2013

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309287036

Print

Figures (4) ; References (37) ; Tables (4)

Behavior; Microscopic traffic flow; Traffic congestion; Traffic safety; Traffic simulation; Variable speed limits

VISSIM (Computer model)

Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I71: Traffic Theory; I73: Traffic Control

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:11PM

• Analysis of Crash Severity Based on Vehicle Damage and Occupant Injuries
• Application of Stochastic Gradient Boosting Technique to Enhance Reliability of Real-Time Risk Assessment: Use of Automatic Vehicle Identification and Remote Traffic Microwave Sensor Data
• Assessment of Exposure Proxies for Macroscopic Road Safety Prediction
• Crash Databases in Australasia, the European Union, and the United States: Review and Prospects for Improvement
• Developing Truck Corridor Crash Severity Index
• Effects of Public Rest Areas on Fatigue-Related Crashes
• Evaluation of Postencroachment Time as Surrogate for Opposing Left-Turn Crashes
• Evolutionary Game Theoretic Approach to Rear-End Events on Congested Freeway
• Examining Heterogeneity of Driver Behavior with Temporal and Spatial Factors
• Exploring Behavioral Responses of Motorists to Risk-Based Charging Mechanisms
• Feasibility of Incorporating Reliability Analysis in Traffic Safety Investigation
• Full Bayes Before-and-After Evaluation of Traffic Safety Improvements in City of Edmonton, Canada
• Hot-Spot Identification: Categorical Binary Model Approach
• Identification of Crash-Contributing Factors: Effects of Spatial Autocorrelation and Sample Data Size
• Identifying Primary and Secondary Crashes from Spatiotemporal Crash Impact Analysis
• Motion Prediction Methods for Surrogate Safety Analysis
• On-Duty Struck-By Crashes: Characteristics and Contributing Factors
• Safety Evaluation of Horizontal Curves on Rural Undivided Roads
• Screening Naturalistic Driving Study Data for Safety-Critical Events
• Surrogate Safety Measure for Simulation-Based Conflict Study