Driver License Renewal Issues and Concerns

Periodic renewal of driver licenses is an integral part of the driver licensing procedures for most states, including Kentucky. Renewal of driver licenses is usually required every four years, and many states conduct vision tests before granting renewal. Few states require additional testing, while several states, including Kentucky, have no vision or any other examinations at renewal. Past research has shown a relationship between crashes and driving records. Thus, it was considered important to develop mechanisms to identify potential problem drivers and to systematically review current practices regarding license renewal and retesting. Additional concerns included the increasing percentage of elderly drivers and their deterioration of vision due to aging. There is a universal agreement among researchers that vision plays a significant role in driving performance, that there are age-related visual changes, and that drivers over age 75 have proportionally higher crash rates than most younger age groups of drivers. However, there is no established standard for vision screening policies. The use of low-contrast charts may improve the effectiveness of vision tests. Age-based road tests are not considered as a practical means to identify drivers with deficiencies, and they would unnecessarily burden the license renewal process. However, using road tests as an additional means of evaluating select individuals, such as those failing vision tests or those referred by a physician or family member, could significantly improve the identification of deficient drivers. The work completed here indicates that safety gains might be achieved by implementing additional procedures for older drivers. The first step might be to require that drivers over 75 renew their driver license every 2 years. A second step would be to use vision screening tests that include a set of medical questions to be given at license renewal for older drivers. As noted earlier, road testing for renewal does not reduce crash rates nor assist in identifying at-risk drivers, and thus is not considered a good initiative. However, allowing renewal examiners the discretion to require road testing as deemed necessary is recommended as a third step. Despite the considerable amount of existing knowledge about the physiological changes of older persons and the impact of these changes on driving, further research is needed. Such research should seek to design and evaluate license renewal programs that would provide older persons with a fair assessment of their driving abiliti

Traffic Maneuver Problems and Crashes of Young Drivers

While over the past decades the population of younger drivers has been decreasing, their crash rates have increased. Past research has associated their higher crash rates to societal influences and youthful behavior. The objective of this research is to identify the specific driving maneuvers whose unsuccessful undertaking results in specific types of crashes involving these drivers. Four types of crashes were identified as the most prominent for young drivers including crashes at intersections, rear end, crashes resulting from passing maneuvers and single vehicle crashes. The analysis was performed examining the Kentucky crash database for the 1994-1996 period using the quasi-induced exposure method. The results showed that for all crashes there is a general trend of decreasing involvement with increasing age, which indicates that their inexperience is the largest single contributor to their increased crash rates. Of significance is the fact that for all crashes a dramatic decrease of involvement after the first year of driving between the years of 16 and 17 is observed. This may be indicative of a steep learning curve in the first years of driving regarding the ability to control a vehicle. Therefore, very little can be made to improve this phenomenon. Increasing the level of awareness among young drivers about these issues and their likely crash involvement seems to be the only viable approach. However, preliminary efforts from the graduated license show that some of these trends seem to be reduced indicating a possible impact on the crash rates of young drivers

Evaluation of US 119 Pine Mountain Safety Improvements: IHSDM Analysis of Post Construction

The spot improvements on US 119 in Letcher County between Whitesburg and Partridge were an attempt to improve safety throughout the corridor. To achieve this goal, the roadway alignment and cross section were changed at various locations. In addition, problems related to truck traffic were considered in redefining the roadway geometries. The total length of the spot improvement locations was approximately 6.9 miles

Conversion of New Circle Road to a Limited Access Highway

The objectives of this study were to first evaluate the existing traffic conditions along the NE part of New Circle Road and investigate the use of unconventional left turn treatments, as well as other access restrictions to improve the operating conditions of New Circle Road. The alternatives examined include a do-nothing alternative, the addition of one through lane per direction, the use of median U-turns at various locations, and combinations of them. Restrictive left turn strategies proved to be a more successful tool for traffic management on New Circle Road than simply adding a lane in each direction. Using median U-turns, significant improvements were observed in all operating measures of the arterial. One of the main advantages to the improvements recommended in this study is that they can be constructed quickly and provide immediate improvement to arterial operating conditions without requiring any new right of way acquisition

The Dayton ITS Demonstration Project: Simulating Existing Conditions

The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission is incorporating an Advanced Traveler Information System to alleviate real-time traffic problems associated with special events at the Ervin J. Nutter Center of the Wright State University. This study of the existing conditions is part of the evaluation plan and addresses two tasks: 1) documentation of the existing conditions; and 2) definition of measures of effectiveness. The existing conditions were depicted with the use of a computer simulation software package, Traffic Software Integrated System and separate scenarios were modeled for three existing conditions: ingress and egress for a special event and a major shopping day. For each of the modeled scenarios, several runs were conducted to accurately picture the traffic environment and avoid possible outliers due to the stochastic nature of the simulation program. Model calibration and validation was also used by conducting travel time studies. Several measures of effectiveness were chosen including travel times, delays, and system speeds. Finally, specific routes were studied for each of the scenarios and problem areas were identified

Benefits from Constructability Reviews

Constructability review is a process used during project design to infuse construction knowledge into the design process. There is industry impetus encouraging early construction involvement in project development. State transportation agencies often have to abide by legislation restricting these procurement methods leaving construability review as the only opportunity for early construction involvement. Staffing and budgetary constraints lead to state transportation agencies being very cautious in the practices and processes they implement that seemingly lie outside the main missions of project development and delivery. Without straightforward and documented savings of constructability review processes, these methods may also be eliminated. After streamlining the constructability review process for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, an effort was undertaken to estimate monetary benefits from such reviews. Constructability reviews were evaluated at the project level by comparing change order percentages on projects reviewed versus those not being reviewed. This approach showed a clear indication that there are monetary savings associated with constructability reviews resulting in a conservative estimate of 1.25 percent of the project budget. This estimate did not include the additional inherent savings in time, lessons learned or other aspects not readily quantifiable. The second method of evaluating constructability reviews was to quantify and qualify each constructability review comment. A model was developed to estimate the potential monetary gains from the comments indicating the presence of such gains but additional analysis is needed to improve model accuracy

Observed Risk and User Perception of Road Infrastructure Safety Assessment for Cycling Mobility

The opportunities for data collection in smart cities and communities provide new approaches for assessing risk of roadway components. This paper presents and compares two different methodological approaches for cycling safety assessment of objective and perceived risk. Objective risk was derived from speed and direction profiles collected with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and camera installed on an instrumented bicycle. Safety critical events between cyclists and other road users were identified and linked to five different roadway components. A panel of experts was asked to score the severity of the safety critical events using a Delphi process to reach consensus. To estimate the perceived risk, a web-based survey was provided to the city bicyclist community asking them to score the same five roadway components with a 4-point Likert scale. A comparison between perceived and objective risk classification of the roadway components showed a good agreement when only higher severity conflicts were considered. The research findings support the notion that it is possible to collect information from bicycle probe data that match and user perceptions and thus, utilizing them to take advantage of such data in advancing the goals of in smart cities and communities

Evaluation of the Dayton ITS Demonstration Project

This is the second and final report of the Dayton ITS Demonstration Project, which evaluates the effectiveness of Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) devices located in the vicinity of the Nutter Center (Figure 1), Dayton, Ohio. The intention of these devices is to provide real-time information to travelers accessing the Nutter Center during special events. The first report documented the existing conditions (1999) and defined various measures of effectiveness used to evaluate the traffic conditions. The ATIS devices were installed in the meantime. To complete the evaluation of the demonstration project, this report evaluates the performance of the road network surrounding the Nutter Center after the implementation of the ATIS devices (hereafter referred to as present conditions). These conditions are compared to the conditions evaluated in the previous report (hereafter referred to as initial conditions). An analysis that quantifies the changes on the network performance is also presented here to determine the effects of the devices installed

How Driver Risk Perception Affects Operating Speeds

Excessive speed is one of the primary safety hazards facing highway users. However, in many cases operating speeds exceed design speeds, and drivers generally ignore posted speed limits. The main objective of this research was to identify roadway elements and roadside features that could influence driver operating speeds in rural two-lane roads without compromising safety. Virtual Reality video simulations were employed and drivers recorded the influence of these elements on their judgments about the appropriate driving speed. The driver/participants viewed 22 models projected on a large screen in a darkened room, simulating the windshield of a vehicle. The viewing sessions simultaneously accommodated significant numbers of subjects and gathered their feedback through electronic audience response systems. The response feedback was modeled through use of a fuzzy set system allowing the inspection of interrelationships of many different design parameters. The arithmetic mean score for discomfort for each scenario ranged from 4.3 to 8.1, representing large variation among scenarios. Our results show that simulating the driving environment using visualization was effective in generating feedback, thus avoiding the expensive and time-consuming process of individually ‘processing’ subjects through a driving simulator