New consistency index based on inertial operating speed

The occurrence of road crashes depends on several factors, with design consistency (i.e., conformance of highway geometry to drivers' expectations) being one of the most important. A new consistency model for evaluating the performance of tangent-to-curve transitions on two-lane rural roads was developed. This model was based on the inertial consistency index (ICI) defined for each transition. The ICI was calculated at the beginning point of the curve as the difference between the average operating speed on the previous 1-km road segment (inertial operating speed) and the actual operating speed at this point. For the calibration of the ICI and its thresholds, 88 road segments, which included 1,686 tangent-to-curve transitions, were studied. The relationship between those results and the crash rate associated with each transition was analyzed. The results showed that the higher the ICI was, the higher the crash rate; thus, the probability of accidents increased. Similar results were obtained from the study of the relationship between the ICI and the weighted average crash rate of the corresponding group of transitions. A graphical and statistical analysis established that road consistency might be considered good when the ICI was lower than 10 km/h, poor when the ICI was higher than 20 km/h, and fair otherwise. A validation process that considered 20 road segments was performed. The ICI values obtained were highly correlated to the number of crashes that had occurred at the analyzed transitions. Thus, the ICI and its consistency thresholds resulted in a new approach for evaluation of consistency.The authors thank the Center for Studies and Experimentation of Public Works of the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, which partially subsidized the data collection, for obtaining the empirical operating speed profiles used in the validation process. The authors also thank the General Directorate of Public Works of the Infrastructure and Transportation Department of the Valencian government, the Valencian Province Council, and the General Directorate of Traffic of the Ministry of the Interior of the Government of Spain for their cooperation in data gathering.García García, A.; Llopis Castelló, D.; Camacho Torregrosa, FJ.; Pérez Zuriaga, AM. (2013). New consistency index based on inertial operating speed. Transportation Research Record. (2391):105-112. doi:10.3141/2391-10S1051122391Ng, J. C. ., & Sayed, T. (2004). Effect of geometric design consistency on road safety. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 31(2), 218-227. doi:10.1139/l03-090Gibreel, G. M., Easa, S. M., Hassan, Y., & El-Dimeery, I. A. (1999). State of the Art of Highway Geometric Design Consistency. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 125(4), 305-313. doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-947x(1999)125:4(305)Hassan, Y. (2004). Highway Design Consistency: Refining the State of Knowledge and Practice. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1881(1), 63-71. doi:10.3141/1881-08Polus, A., & Mattar-Habib, C. (2004). New Consistency Model for Rural Highways and Its Relationship to Safety. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 130(3), 286-293. doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-947x(2004)130:3(286)Cafiso, S., Di Graziano, A., Di Silvestro, G., La Cava, G., & Persaud, B. (2010). Development of comprehensive accident models for two-lane rural highways using exposure, geometry, consistency and context variables. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 42(4), 1072-1079. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2009.12.015Zuriaga, A. M. P., García, A. G., Torregrosa, F. J. C., & D’Attoma, P. (2010). Modeling Operating Speed and Deceleration on Two-Lane Rural Roads with Global Positioning System Data. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2171(1), 11-20. doi:10.3141/2171-0

New geometric design consistency model based on operating speed profiles for road safety evaluation

[EN] To assist in the on-going effort to reduce road fatalities as much as possible, this paper presents a new methodology to evaluate road safety in both the design and redesign stages of two-lane rural highways. This methodology is based on the analysis of road geometric design consistency, a value which will be a surrogate measure of the safety level of the two-lane rural road segment. The consistency model presented in this paper is based on the consideration of continuous operating speed profiles. The models used for their construction were obtained by using an innovative GPS-data collection method that is based on continuous operating speed profiles recorded from individual drivers. This new methodology allowed the researchers to observe the actual behavior of drivers and to develop more accurate operating speed models than was previously possible with spot-speed data collection, thereby enabling a more accurate approximation to the real phenomenon and thus a better consistency measurement. Operating speed profiles were built for 33 Spanish two-lane rural road segments, and several consistency measurements based on the global and local operating speed were checked. The final consistency model takes into account not only the global dispersion of the operating speed, but also some indexes that consider both local speed decelerations and speeds over posted speeds as well. For the development of the consistency model, the crash frequency for each study site was considered, which allowed estimating the number of crashes on a road segment by means of the calculation of its geometric design consistency. Consequently, the presented consistency evaluation method is a promising innovative tool that can be used as a surrogate measure to estimate the safety of a road segment.The authors would like to thank the Center for Studies and Experimentation of Public Works (CEDEX) of the Spanish Ministry of PublicWorks for partially subsidizing this research.We also wish to thank the Infrastructure and Transportation Department of the General Directorate of Public Works of the Valencian Government, to the Valencian Provincial Council, and to the Ministry of the Interior, especially the General Directorate of Traffic of Spain, for their cooperation in field data gathering.Camacho Torregrosa, FJ.; Pérez Zuriaga, AM.; Campoy Ungria, JM.; García García, A. (2013). New geometric design consistency model based on operating speed profiles for road safety evaluation. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 61:33-42. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2012.10.001S33426

Using Decision Trees for comparing different consistency models

[EN] One technique used to improve highway safety from the point of view of the infrastructure is to examine the consistency of the design. Design consistency refers to if highway geometry is conformance to driver expectancy. When the consistency of the road is inadequate, the more likely it is that drivers will be startled and a crash will occur. The consistency, based on operating speed, has been calculated in Spanish two-lane rural highways. This consistency has been evaluated using a local method, to measure the consistency of each element of the road and using a global method, to measure the consistency of a segment of the road. Different models of consistency have been compared using Decision Trees (DTs). DTs are a Data Mining Techniques which can be used to solve classification problems. The results show that DTs are a suitable technique to compare consistence models and they permit to establish limits between the different models analyzed.Support from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Research Project TRA2012-37823), co-funded with FEDER, is gratefully acknowledged.Griselda López wishes to express her acknowledgement to the regional ministry of Economy, Innovation and Science of the regional government of Andalusia (Spain) for their scholarship to train teachers and researchers in Deficit AreasGarach Morcillo, L.; Calvo Poyo, FJ.; López-Maldonado, G. (2014). Using Decision Trees for comparing different consistency models. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 160:332-341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.145S33234116