Sensing for HOV/HOT Lanes Enforcement

The use and creation of combined high-occupancy vehicle/high-occupancy toll (HOV/HOT Lanes) have become more common in urban areas since all types of road users can take advantage of the lane either as a high- occupancy vehicle or opting in to pay a congestion adjusted free. However, to maintain working integrity of the lanes for all users, stepped enforcement to discourage cheating has been needed as more lanes are added. This study evaluated the capability of a novel image sensor device to automate detection of in-vehicle occupants to flag law enforcement of HOV/HOT lane violators. The sensor device synchronously captures three co-registered images, one in the visible spectrum and two others in the infrared bands. The key idea is that the infrared bands can enhance correct occupancy detection through known phenomenological spectral properties of objects and humans residing inside the vehicle. Several experiments were conducted to determine this capability across varied conditions and scenarios to assess detection segmentation algorithms of vehicle passengers and drivers. Although occupancy detection through vehicle glass could be achieved in many cases, improvements must be made to such a detection system to increase robustness and reliability as a law enforcement tool. These improvements were guided by the experimental results, as well as suggested methods for deployment if this or similar technologies were to be deployed in the future

Sensing for HOV/HOT Lanes Enforcement

The use and creation of combined high-occupancy vehicle/high-occupancy toll (HOV/HOT Lanes) have become more common in urban areas since all types of road users can take advantage of the lane either as a high- occupancy vehicle or opting in to pay a congestion adjusted free. However, to maintain working integrity of the lanes for all users, stepped enforcement to discourage cheating has been needed as more lanes are added. This study evaluated the capability of a novel image sensor device to automate detection of in-vehicle occupants to flag law enforcement of HOV/HOT lane violators. The sensor device synchronously captures three co-registered images, one in the visible spectrum and two others in the infrared bands. The key idea is that the infrared bands can enhance correct occupancy detection through known phenomenological spectral properties of objects and humans residing inside the vehicle. Several experiments were conducted to determine this capability across varied conditions and scenarios to assess detection segmentation algorithms of vehicle passengers and drivers. Although occupancy detection through vehicle glass could be achieved in many cases, improvements must be made to such a detection system to increase robustness and reliability as a law enforcement tool. These improvements were guided by the experimental results, as well as suggested methods for deployment if this or similar technologies were to be deployed in the future

Preliminary Evaluation of Efficiency of HOV lane Operation on I-40 Eastbound Memphis, Tennessee

This research is a preliminary ealuation of the effectiveness of the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane along I-40 eastbound Memphis, TN. This HOVlane is operated from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. during weekdays. Data for the analysis was collected over a two month period in June and July 2011 using standard techniques as well as low cost smart phone apps and consumer grade GPS navigation products. The data collected included hourly volume data, average vehicle occupancy, violation rates, travel times and carbon emissions estimates. The analysis consisted of three methods of measuring effectiveness: increasing person throughput, providing travel time benefits and environmental benefits. To check for statistically significant differences between HOV lane and other GP lanes statistical methods including the two sample t-test and Mann Whitney test were used. a concept of a beffer index was also used to check the travel time reliability for each lane. The result showed that the objective of increasing person throughput is not met for this corridor within Memphis, TN, and recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the HOV lane are presented

Electronic Barrier And Enforcement System And Method

Disclosed are systems and methods for implementing an electronic tollway barrier system. Exemplary systems and methods use positive vehicle identification at progressive monitoring locations to determine whether a vehicle has illegally entered a controlled lane across the electronic barrier, ensure that toll locations are not circumvented, and automatically issue citations to violators of the electronic barrier.State Road And Tollway AuthorityGeorgia Tech Research Corporatio

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF INCIDENTS AND INCIDENT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS ON FREEWAY MOBILITY AND SAFETY

Despite significant technological achievements over past decades, and institutional support for Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), it is not possible to prevent all traffic incidents. Numerous incidents occur every day along U.S. freeways and traffic incident management (TIM) programs have been proposed and implemented to mitigate their impact. This dissertation proposes various tools to aid in the evaluation of proposed TIM programs, contributing, thus, to the general study area of freeway incident management. In addition, moving violations specific to concurrent flow lane operations are conceived as a type of transient incident. Their impact on mobility and safety is considered. Techniques to address four key areas are proposed. First, a methodology that considers the dynamics of incident impact given a primary incident's properties and prevailing traffic conditions for identifying secondary incidents from a database is proposed. This method is computationally efficient and overcomes deficiencies of other existing techniques, with utility in any context in which the study of secondary incidents is warranted. A three-stage time-saving process is developed for conducting TIM program benefit evaluations. The process aids in sampling a relatively small set of good quality incident scenarios that can represent historical incident data and overcomes the computational burden encountered when evaluating TIM program's benefit by simulation. Modeling techniques are proposed for simulating violations associated with the operation of concurrent flow lanes. Results from a case study show significant impact to mobility that grows nonlinearly with increasing violation rate. Such illegal traffic maneuvers contribute to increased speed variation and congestion, ultimately affecting safety. Finally, diversion strategies that exploit existing capacity of managed lanes for the purpose of reducing the impact of an incident in the general purpose lanes are evaluated. Simulation modeling methodologies were developed for modeling freeway incidents and studied diversion strategy implementations. Experimental findings indicate benefits of diversion that are contrary to qualitatively developed recommendations in the literature

Congestion Relief: Assessing the Case for Road Tolls in Canada

Experience with road pricing generally — and congestion pricing specifically — is growing around the world. Research and planning in Canada should begin now on road pricing for heavily congested highways and streets.road pricing, traffic congestion

Non-Pricing Methods to Optimize High Occupancy Vehicle Lane Usage, MTI Report 01-11

The Mineta Transportation Institute) at San José State University conducted this study to review the issues and implications involved in the project in question. Twenty-four potential HOV facility user groups were identified. Through a ranking process, seven of these groups were selected for further study in phase one. The project team made the following preliminary conclusions as to the suitability of each group to use HOV facilities and recommended whether each group should be included in the phase two study to refine these findings and develop implementation strategies. 1. As the result of 1998 legislation, which includes sunset provisions, electric vehicles and other ILEVs, ULEVs, and SULEVs have recently been included in users of HOV facilities. This legislation should be reviewed in phase two to determine if the sunset provisions should be extended. 2. The identified negatives for including light delivery trucks outweigh any identified positives. Unless new evidence surfaces, this group should be dropped from the study. 3. Radio dispatched vehicles are strong candidates, inclusion should result in improved public transportation services. Phase two study of possible enabling legislation should consider sunset provisions to encourage future fleet conversion to vehicles using alternative fuels. 4. Inclusion of EPA certified high mileage vehicles and vehicles using alternative fuels could encourage use of these vehicles with beneficial impacts on air quality and fuel consumption. Possible significant problems of capacity, identification of users, and police monitoring and enforcement should be studied in phase two. 5. Deadheading transit and charter buses appear to be worthy candidates and should be studied further. School buses, because of inherent problems, should not be considered unless significant warrants surface. 6. There does not appear to be any advantage in including light service trucks (utility, maintenance, etc.). 7. There is no compelling reason to change existing conditions regarding enforcement and emergency vehicles

Active Traffic Management as a Tool for Addressing Traffic Congestion

Recurrent and non-recurrent congestion in urban areas continues to be a major concern due to its adverse impacts on delays, fuel consumption and pollution, driver frustration, and traffic safety. In the U.S., limited public funding for roadway expansion and improvement projects, coupled with continued growth in travel along congested urban freeway corridors, creates a pressing need for innovative congestion management approaches

Social Equity Impacts of Congestion Management Strategies

This white paper examines the social equity impacts of various congestion management strategies. The paper includes a comprehensive list of 30 congestion management strategies and a discussion of equity implications related to each strategy. The authors analyze existing literature and incorporate findings from 12 expert interviews from academic, non-governmental organization (NGO), public, and private sector respondents to strengthen results and fill gaps in understanding. The literature review applies the Spatial – Temporal – Economic – Physiological – Social (STEPS) Equity Framework (Shaheen et al., 2017) to identify impacts and classify whether social equity barriers are reduced, exacerbated, or both by a particular congestion mitigation measure. The congestion management strategies discussed are grouped into six main categories, including: 1) pricing, 2) parking and curb policies, 3) operational strategies, 4) infrastructure changes, 5) transportation services and strategies, and 6) conventional taxation. The findings show that the social equity impacts of certain congestion management strategies are not well understood, at present, and further empirical research is needed. Congestion mitigation measures have the potential to affect travel costs, commute times, housing, and accessibility in ways that are distinctly positive or negative for different populations. For these reasons, social equity implications of congestion management strategies should be understood and mitigated for in planning and implementation of these strategies

AN INTEGRATED SCORE-BASED TRAFFIC LAW ENFORCEMENT AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT IN CONNECTED VEHICLE ENVIRONMENT

The increasing number of traffic accidents and the associated traffic congestion have prompted the development of innovative technologies to curb such problems. This dissertation introduces a novel Score-Based Traffic Law Enforcement and Network Management System (SLEM), which leverages connected vehicle (CV) and telematics technologies. SLEM assigns a score to each driver which reflects her/his driving performance and compliance with traffic laws over a predefined period of time. The proposed system adopts a rewarding mechanism that rewards high-performance drivers and penalizes low-performance drivers who fail to obey traffic laws. The reward mechanism is in the form of a route guidance strategy that restricts low-score drivers from accessing certain roadway sections and time periods that are strategically selected in order to shift the network traffic distribution pattern from the undesirable user equilibrium (UE) pattern to the system optimal (SO) pattern. Hence, it not only incentivizes drivers to improve their driving performance, but it also provides a mechanism to manage network congestion in which high-score drivers experience less congestion and a higher level of safety at the expense of low-performing drivers. This dissertation is divided into twofold. iv First, a nationwide survey study was conducted to measure public acceptance of the SLEM system. Another survey targeted a focused group of traffic operation and safety professionals. Based on the results of these surveys, a set of logistic regression models was developed to examine the sensitivity of public acceptance to policy and behavioral variables. The results showed that about 65 percent of the public and about 60.0 percent of professionals who participated in this study support the real-world implementation of SLEM. Second, we present a modeling framework for the optimal design of SLEM’s routing strategy, which is described in the form of a score threshold for each route. Under SLEM’s routing strategy, drivers are allowed to use a particular route only if their driving scores satisfy the score threshold assigned to that route. The problem is formulated as a bi-level mathematical program in which the upper-level problem minimizes total network travel time, while the lower-level problem captures drivers’ route choice behavior under SLEM. An efficient solution methodology developed for the problem is presented. The solution methodology adopts a heuristic-based approach that determines the score thresholds that minimize the difference between the traffic distribution pattern under SLEM’s routing strategy and the SO pattern. The framework was applied to the network of the US-75 Corridor in Dallas, Texas, and a set of simulation-based experiments was conducted to evaluate the network performance given different driver populations, score class aggregation levels, recurrent and non-recurrent congestion scenarios, and driver compliance rates