00202538

Component

http://onlinepubs.trb.org...ubs/hrr/1963/19/19-003.pdf

FOR YEARS, TRAFFIC ENGINEERS HAVE RECOGNIZED AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS A POTENTIAL TOOL TO BE USED IN SOLVING TRAFFIC OPERATIONS PROBLEMS. IN STUDYING A SPECIFIC PROBLEM LOCATION, HOWEVER, THIS TOOL WAS OFTEN PASSED OVER AS BEING TOO EXPENSIVE, AND YIELDING DATA WHICH REQUIRED DIFFICULT AND TIME-CONSUMING ANALYSIS, DATA COULD BE COLLECTED BY MORE CONVENTIONAL TRAFFIC ENGINEERING PROCEDURES. THE RECENT RECOGNITION AND INCREASING USE OF A SYSTEMS APPROACH, AS OPPOSED TO THE ISOLATED PROBLEM APPROACH, HAS CAUSED THE TRAFFIC ENGINEER TO REVIEW STUDY PROCEDURES TO FIND THE ONES MOST APPROPRIATE FOR USE WITH THIS NEW PHILOSOPHY. PROBLEMS ON URBAN FREEWAYS HAVE HAD MUCH TO DO WITH THIS DEVELOPMENT. OFTEN THE TRAFFIC ENGINEER WOULD EXPEND MUCH TIME, ENERGY, AND MONEY TO SOLVE A PROBLEM AT A PARTICULAR POINT WHERE CONGESTION WAS REGULARLY OBSERVED, ONLY TO FIND OUT LATER THAT THE REAL SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM WAS SOME DISTANCE AWAY. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IN THE COORDINATION OF LARGE TRAFFIC SIGNAL NETWORKS ALSO HAS PROMPTED GREATER ATTENTION TO SYSTEM CONSIDERATIONS. AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF OBTAINING TIME-LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE AIR WAS UNDERTAKEN IN LOS ANGELES TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY AND APPLICATION OF SUCH TECHNIQUES FOR STUDYING TRAFFIC OPERATION ALONG A CONSIDERABLE LENGTH OF FREEWAY. IN GENERAL, THE EXPERIMENTS PROVED HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL, SINCE IT WAS DETERMINED THAT A CERTAIN TYPE OF FREEWAY STUDY CAN BE MADE WHICH YIELDS IMPORTANT RESULTS, AND WHICH UTILIZES THE ADVANTAGEOUS FEATURES OF AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND MINIMIZES THE TIME IN WHICH AN ANALYSIS CAN BE MADE. THIS PAPER DESCRIBES THE PROCEDURES USED IN MAKING AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHIC DENSITY STUDIES AND PRESENTS SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPHS AND SAMPLE ANALYTICAL RESULTS. A NEW METHOD OF PRESENTING FREEWAY OPERATIONS DATA, THE DENSITY CONTOUR MAP, IS DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED, AND THE USE OF THE MAP IN DETERMINING ORIGIN, DURATION, AND EXTENT OF CONGESTION IS DISCUSSED. /AUTHOR/

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01409990

pp 24-34

1963

Highway Research Record

Digital/other

Figures (5) ; References (8)

Aerial photography; Contours; Density; Freeways; Highway operations; Maps; Origin and destination; Studies; Time; Time lapse photography; Traffic; Traffic congestion; Urban areas

Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management

TRIS, TRB

Sep 29 1994 12:00AM

• ADOPTION OF AERIAL SURVEY METHODS FOR TRAFFIC OPERATIONS
• CALIFORNIA'S AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY INVENTORY OF FREEWAYS
• DETERMINING URBAN GROWTH AND CHANGE FROM AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH COMPARISONS
• DEVELOPMENT OF THE SKY COUNT TECHNIQUE FOR HIGHWAY TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
• USE OF THE KELSH PLOTTER IN GEO-ENGINEERING AND ALLIED INVESTIGATIONS IN KANSAS
• VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL BRIDGING WITH THE KELSH STEREOSCOPIC PLOTTER