• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.47-56
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• 2015

PURPOSES: The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact of variable message signage (VMS) on traffic safety as a function of road curve radius using statistical methods. METHODS: In order to analyze the impact of VMS installations on traffic safety, travel speed, lateral distance, and geometric data relating to road curvature in each study area was acquired and analyzed for the impact of providing VMS information on driver performance and traffic safety using statistical methods including student t-test, Mann-Whitney test, and the Anderson-Darling test for estimating traffic safety hazard zone in each lane. RESULTS: As a result of analyzing driver performance characteristics before and after providing VMS information, it was determined that by providing VMS information, mean travel speed is deceased and vehicles are driven with increased precision, following the centerline in the first and second lanes. Also the results of analyzing traffic safety impacts of VMS indicate that traffic safety performance factors in the first lane of the Gapyeong section can, on average, increase in the left and right side of the lane by 19.22% and 68.98%, respectively, and in the case of the second lane, safety impacts, on average, can increase in both sides by 100%. For the Hongcheon section, traffic safety impacts in the first lane, on average, can increase along the left and right sides of the lane by 32.31% and 47.18%, and within the second lane, traffic safety can be increased along the left and right side of the lane by 10.97% and -0.01%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of this study, the impact on traffic safety obtained by providing VMS information for road sections with smaller curve radii is greater than can be obtained for road sections with larger curve radii.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2015

Recently ITS have been increasingly applied on the roads to resolve traffic problems. Especially, Variable Message Sign (VMS), which is the one of ITS for traffic management and traffic safety, can be used for providing information about road conditions, climate conditions. In this study, data acquisition and statistical analysis were conducted for estimating safety impacts of providing traffic information through VMS. As a result of analyzing traffic characteristics before and after providing traffic information through VMS, average travel speed was decreased and vehicles tended to drive on centerline of lanes in 1st and 2nd lane after providing traffic information through VMS. Also, in order to analyze safety impacts of provided VMS traffic information, traffic safety hazard zone was established in each lane and probability distributions of passing traffic on the study area was estimated through Anderson-Darling Test. As a result of this, safety impacts of VMS traffic information in 1st lane could, on average, increase in left and right side of the lane by 0.69% and 7.07%, respectively. In case of 2nd lane, safety impacts could, on average, increase in left and right side of the lane by 2.71% and 0.02%, respectively.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.117-126
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• 2015

PURPOSES : This study prioritizes potential technology for establishing a safe work zone environment on roadways. We consider almost all conceivable technologies that enable mitigation of unexpected accidents for both road workers and drivers. METHODS : This study suggests a methodology to set the priority of potential technology for establishing a safe work zone environment by using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). For this purpose, the AHP structure was first developed. Thereafter, a web-based survey was conducted to collect experts' opinions. Based on the survey results, weights associated with the relevant criteria of the developed structure were estimated. With the consistency index (CI) and consistency ratio (CR), we verified the estimated weights. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was performed to confirm whether the estimated weights were reliable. We finally proposed the priority for potential technology for establishing a safe work zone environment on roadways. RESULTS : In the first level, safety technology has the highest priority, and real-time information delivery for work zone, hazard warning for drivers, and temporal automated operation for traffic facilities were selected in the second level of hierarchy. CONCLUSIONS : The results imply that establishing the priority will be useful to establish a future road map for improving the work environment for road workers and drivers by employing appropriate protection facilities and developing safety systems.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.38-48
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• 2010

Adverse weather (e.g. strong winds, snow and ice) will probably appear as a more serious and frequent threat to road traffic than in clear climate. Another consequence of climate change with a natural disastrous on road traffic is respond to traffic accident more the large and high-rise bridge zone, tunnel zone, inclined plane zone and de-icing zone than any other zone, which in turn calls for continuous adaption of monitoring procedures. Accident mitigating measures against this accident category may consist of intense winter maintenance, the use of road weather information systems for data collection and early warnings, road surveillance and traffic control. While hazard from reduced road friction due to snow and ice may be eliminated by snow removal and de-icing measures, the effect of strong winds on road traffic are not easily avoided. The purpose of the study described here, was to design of amber information the relationship between traffic safety, weather, user information on road weather and driving conditions in local-scale Geographic. The most applications are the optimization of the amber information definition, improvements to road surveillance, road weather monitoring and improved accuracy of user information delivery. Also, statistics on wind gust, surface condition, vehicle category and other relevant parameters for wind induced accidents provide basis for traffic control, early warning policies and driver education for improved road safety at bad weather-exposed locations.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.17-28
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• 2011

This study proposed a speed management strategy for the enhancement of traffic safety on freeways. A novel feature of the proposed strategy is to provide desirable speed information to individual vehicles. A microscopic traffic simulator, VISSIM, was used for the performance evaluation. Vehicle trajectory data were used to evaluate the various speed management scenarios including the different levels of proportions of heavy vehicles. The proposed speed management strategy would be a useful precursor for developing an effective traffic control and operations system to prevent traffic accidents on freeways.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2011

It can prevent traffic accidents in a way as taking precautionary measures for road safety at signalized intersection in advance. Particularly, traffic accidents can be reduced at relatively low cost without redesigning alignments. That is 'Positive Guidance method' which can help prevent traffic accidents through improvement of road facilities at signalized intersection. In this study, potentially higher hazardous signalized intersection due to speeding was selected through site investigation. Field analysis at designated section was conducted and devised a plan for improvements of road facilities. Subjects drove in driving simulator in 3-D virtual reality of designated intersection. Based on data from simulator, statistical analysis(t-verification) was conducted for 'Before and After effectiveness' of speed reduction. As a result, it indicates that speed reduction was effective after improvements at each spot in driving simulator. In the future, hazardous signalized intersections which can be applied for PG method will be effective for road safety based on this research.