• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.47-56
• /
• 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
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.22-30
• /
• 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
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.135-146
• /
• 2013

PURPOSES : This study aimed to analyze the impact the operation of pre-signals at 4-leg signalized intersections and present primary environmental factors of roads that need to be considered in the installation of pre-signals. METHODS : Shift of proportions safety effectiveness evaluation method which assesses shifts in proportions of target collision types to determine safety effectiveness was applied to analyze traffic crash by types. Also, Empirical Bayes before/after safety effectiveness evaluation method was adapted to analyze the impact pre-signal installation. Negative binomial regression was conducted to determine SPF(safety performance function). RESULTS : Pre-signals are effective in reducing the number of head on, right angle and sideswipe collisions and both the total number of personal injury crashes and severe crashes. Also, it is deemed that each factor used as an independent variable for the SPF model has strong correlation with the total number of personal injury crashes and severe crashes, and impacts general traffic crashes as a whole. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests the following should be considered in pre-signal installation on intersections. 1) U-turns allowed in the front and rear 2) A high number of roads that connect to the intersection 3) Many right-turn traffic flows 4) Crosswalks installed in the front and rear 5) Insufficient left-turn lanes compared to left-turn traffic flows or no left-turn-only lane.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.32-49
• /
• 2024

In this paper, we analyzed the impacts of road traffic conditions and speed limit changes on traffic flow and safety. Travel speed and moving speed were set as traffic flow indicators and'moving speed-travel speed',speed deviation, large speed deviation ratio, and number of conflicts were set as safety indicators, and the impacts of changes in road traffic conditions and speed limits on these were analyzed. According to the analysis results, the speed limit had a significant impacts on the traffic indicators, but did not significantly affect the safety indicators. As a result of the statistical validity test, it was proven that the traffic flow index increases as the speed limit increases. However, although safety indicators often increase, their validity has not been proven statistically. Therefore, if the speed limit is set and operated by properly considering the traffic flow status according to various road conditions and changes in traffic volume, it can be said to match the speed at which drivers drive and improve traffic flow and safety. Therefore, it is expected that calculating the speed limit considering the traffic flow indicators and safety indicators presented in this paper and operating the speed limit according to changes in traffic volume will contribute to stabilizing the traffic flow on the road.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.169-183
• /
• 2018

Aggressive driving leads to a greater crash potential because it threatens surrounding vehicles. This study conducted traffic simulation experiments using driving behavior data obtained from multi-agent driving simulations. VISSIM traffic simulator and surrogate safety assessment model (SSAM) were used to identify the impacts of aggressive driving on traffic stream in terms of safety and operational efficiency. Market penetration rates (MPR) of aggressive driving vehicle, coupled with various traffic conditions, were taken into consideration in analyzing the impacts. As expected, it was identified that aggressive driving vehicles tended to deteriorate the traffic safety performance. From the perspective of operational efficiency, interesting results were observable. Under level of service (LOS) A, B, and C, it was observed that the average travel speed increased with greater MPRs. Conversely, the average travel speed decreased with under LOS D and E conditions. The outcome of this study would be effectively used for developing safety-related policies for reducing aggressive driving behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.74-82
• /
• 2017

This study was conducted to test the impacts of distractions caused by smartphones on pedestrians whilst walking alongside or across vehicular traffic in a high-density urban zone in South Korea. Through this study, we propose objective evidence for a link between the risk of traffic accidents and distractions from smartphones for pedestrians because of less likely notice activities surrounding road along their walking. This means that smartphones usage may cause inattentional blindness even during a simple activity that should require few cognitive resources. We conducted an experiment comparing pedestrian behavioral patterns of walking with smartphone distractions (such as listening to music with earphones or sending text messages) and normal walking without any distractions. In the experiment, participants walked along a pedestrian path prescribed by researchers and were observed at 8 points which were as follows: two observation points through which participants were instructed to listen to music whilst walking, two points where participants were instructed to send text messages, and four points through which participants were instructed not to use a smartphone at all. According to pedestrian behavior analysis, there is a trend for attention to be distributed amongst whatever other activities pedestrians are doing whilst walking. Therefore, this study proposes that pedestrians walking with such distractions are at a higher risk of traffic accidents compared to those who walk without such distractions. Thus, we advise for the South Korean government to consider ways to traffic policy that will enhance traffic safety for pedestrians.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
• /
• v.58 no.1
• /
• pp.48-55
• /
• 2009

In order to keep safe driving conditions under road networks, there are several formations such as road structure, road surface condition, traffic occupancy and supplement of an accurate information of traffic status ahead To support safe-driving on each road formation, each formation is supplied with various information to help the driver. However, in some cases like rapid status change at local-scale geography, traffic information systems often displays insufficient information because of the lack of information correlation. In order to accurately aware the driver, all road formation must be in sync. It is important to supply accurate information to the driver because this information directly impacts the drivers on the road. This paper discusses the amber information to keep the least safety driving over road formations including tunnels and bridges. This paper also will propose the informations for safe-driving conditions, information linkage on the road and rule-base safety information, as ITS technology, being displayed for all drivers under the worst weather conditions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.93-102
• /
• 2012

The frequency and severity of traffic accidents related to signalized intersections in urban areas have been more serious than those in both arterial segments and crosswalks. Especially, traffic accidents involved with injuries and fatalities have caused by traffic signal violations within intersections. Therefore, many countries including Korea have installed the red light enforcement camera (RLE) to reduce traffic accidents associated with the traffic signal violation. Meanwhile, many methodologies have been studied in terms of safety impacts estimation of red light enforcement, which, however, cannot be easy to conduct. In this study, safety impacts was estimated for intersections of Chicago downtown area using SPF models and EB approach. As a result, for all crash types and target traffic accident types such as "angle", "rear end", "sideswipe in the same and other directions", "turn", and "head on", fatal crashes were reduced by 26% and 38%. However, RLE may increase property-demage-only-crashes by 3.23% and 1.16%, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.158-170
• /
• 2016

It has been applied several ways in order to prevent traffic accidents and speed management on the road which is one of very important factors to prevent accidents. In this study, it is analyzed whether the facility such as the flashing and crosswalk, speed cameras and intermittent warning signs affect on a driving deceleration or not. It has been shown that the flashing and crosswalk and speed cameras except intermittent warning signs play a role of reducing the driving speed. The result showed that these traffic safety facilities help to improve the average speed as well as velocity distribution which was derived by the speed deviation even if there were the difference between facilities. Speed limit display does not affect the deceleration of the driver. Therefore, it was founded in this research that there were the driving speed reduction effect due to the facilities on the road. In order to control the driving speed on the road, it is necessary to install facilities with appropriate location and spacing on the road. In addition, place that turns out suppressed speeding through speed management also are required adequate facilities such as speed cameras.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.22 no.4 s.75
• /
• pp.117-134
• /
• 2004

Truck traffic accounts for a substantial fraction of the traffic stream in many regions and is often the source of localized traffic congestion, potential parking and safety problems. Truck trips tend to be ignored or treated superficially in travel demand models. It reduces the effectiveness and accuracy of travel demand forecasting and may result in misguided transportation policy and project decisions. This paper presents the development of speed-flow relationships with truck impacts based on CORSIM simulation results in order to enhance travel demand model by incorporating truck trips. The traditional BPR(Bureau of Public Road) function representing the speed-flow relationships for roadway facilities is modified to specifically include the impacts of truck traffics. A number of new speed-flow functions have been developed based on CORSIM simulation results for freeways and urban arterials.