September 22, 1973 Football Program, UOP vs. University of Wyoming

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/ua-football/1555/thumbnail.jp

November 16, 1974 Football Program, UOP vs. University of Wyoming

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/ua-football/1379/thumbnail.jp

Research Helps Local Agencies Predict Accidents to Make Rural Highways Safer

New data collection methods and computing techniques are powerful tools for improving the safety of the nation\u2019s roads. Researchers and road agencies use those tools to predict accidents so they can focus efforts on designing highways and making improvements that minimize crashes. Researchers at the University of Wyoming, a member of the Region 8 Mountain-Plains Consortium led by North Dakota State University, have developed procedures that allow those general tools to be calibrated so that their predictions are more accurate for roadways with unique properties and conditions like those found in the Great Plains and Intermountain West

Calibration of the Highway Safety Manual\u2019s Safety Performance Functions for Rural Two-Lane Highways with Regional Considerations for the Rocky Mountains and Plain Regions

Over the last two decades, the use of advanced scientific and data-driven statistical methods has been continuously evolving to reduce the frequency and severity of crashes on our roadways. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Highway Safety Manual (HSM) was first released in 2010. The manual is considered as a significant milestone in the advancement of the practices of roadway safety analyses. As a part of the 2010 HSM, safety performance functions (SPFs) are detailed as statistical models utilized to predict the expected number of crashes per year for a certain roadway facility as a function of traffic, roadway characteristics, and weather conditions. To better manage roadway safety, SPFs are used in: 1) assessing how safe or unsafe are specific roadway segments, intersections, special facilities, etc., and 2) evaluating how much safety has changed because of specific countermeasures or operational or design interventions. SPFs are commonly broken down into two main categories: simple and full. Simple SPFs typically utilize traffic volumes while full SPFs consider additional factors such as roadway geometry, driver characteristics, or weather conditions. Part C of the 2010 HSM, Predictive Methods, details the calibration procedure for jurisdiction specific SPFs. The primary limitation of the HSM Part C is that the developed SPFs for various road facilities were developed using data from only a few states in the United States, putting their validity and reliability into question as various states or regions are characterized by differing geographic features, weather conditions, and demographics. The primary purpose of this report is to examine the suitability and transferability of the 2010 HSM\u2019s SPFs to Wyoming-specific conditions

Characterization of Soil and Rock for Transportation Infrastructure Using Seismic Methods in Wyoming

RS03220WYDOT utilizes traditional soil borings, drive point analyses, rock coring methods, and lab investigations to identify and characterize the sub-surface soil. Previous experience with these traditional investigation techniques is good; however, current guidance from FHWA encourages the use on non-traditional investigation techniques. These can include a variety of subsurface methods and tools including seismic testing. This study included the data collection and analyses of compression wave and surface wave testing at nine sites throughout Wyoming. The compression wave testing yielded poor quality data and did not result in an ability to see many layers within the subsurface. However, the surface wave testing resulted in a measure of stiffness at each of the nine sites and was a very good predictor of the bedrock depth at each site, with eight of the nine sites in agreement between subsurface investigation and the pile driving records. Correlations between the shear wave velocity and shear strength, rock quality designation and percentage of rock recovered are very poor and yielded no useable correlation data. Lastly, the boundary between weathered and more competent bedrock could not be determined using any of the seismic methods

Automating the Implementation of the Updated Grade Severity Rating System (GSRS) for Wyoming Mountain Passes

RS08220Truck crashes on steep downgrades caused by excessive brake heating is an ongoing concern for the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT). Crashes resulting from brake failure on downgrades cause a devastating toll on lives and property. To counter such crashes, WYDOT initiated a research project in 2016 to update a previous Grade Severity Rating System (GSRS) model originally developed in 1981. This was necessary due to the previous GSRS model being considered insufficiently representative of current truck characteristics, which have undergone significant changes over the decades. This study sought to fulfill Phase II of the GSRS study and was aimed at achieving three objectives. The first objective was to validate the GSRS model for trucks that have only drum brakes installed. The second objective was to make the updated GSRS fully implementable by incorporating horizontal curves into the formulation of the weight specific speed (WSS) signs. The final objective was to develop a software that simplifies the implementation of the GSRS and the formulation of WSS signs by generating maximum descent speeds for different weight categories as output

Evaluation of Concrete Bridge Deck Mixtures Using Shrinkage-Ring Tests

The condition of concrete on bridge decks is one of the most costly parts of Wyoming Department of Transportation's budget and the cost of maintenance can result in inadequate roads or costly premature repairs. This proposal evaluates critical factors relating to early age shrinkage and proposes combining multiple mitigation methods to reduce early-age cracking that contributes to early degradation

Rural Bicycle Design Guide for Wyoming

MPC-473The need for improved bicycle facilities in rural communities is becoming more apparent, but the standard national bicycle design guide is aimed at different types of communities than those found in rural areas. Rural communities differ from mid-size and large urban areas in that they typically have severe funding limitations, fewer engineers on staff, serve different populations, and their roadways have a different mix of vehicles. The objective of this report is to utilize current design guides to develop a resource focused on rural communities to aid in making design decisions about transportation facilities that address livability and provide for non-motorized modes

Development of Performance Matrices for Evaluating Innovative Intersections and Interchanges [MPC-19-391]

MPC-465Innovative intersections and interchanges have proliferated in the State of Utah over the past several years. Continuous flow intersections and diverging diamond interchanges seem to offer improved traffic performance and safety due to their innovative designs. However, there are no clearly defined guidelines or methodologies for monitoring and measuring their performance. Yet, they have a broad impact on operations, safety, access, transit, land use, economic development, and pedestrian and non-motorized traffic. Due to these numerous and overlapping variables, there is a need to develop a standard methodology to further evaluate innovative designs with regards to different performance measures. The goal of this research is to develop a matrix of performance measures, which can be applied in practice to effectively evaluate innovative designs in terms of operations, safety, access, and multimodal accommodations. The study develops and tests an Excel-based tool for evaluation and comparison of different conventional and innovative designs. The tool is based on the existing methodologies and those currently being developed, and they provide analyses of these designs for different performance measures, such as operational, safety, transit and non-motorized user performance, access, and user costs. It can be used for planning, designing, and monitoring performance of innovative designs

Assessment of Motorcycle Safety in Wyoming: Fatal and Severe Crashes, Contributing Factors and Potential Countermeasures [Addendum]

RS04222Motorcycle riders and passengers are much more likely to be killed or severely injured in a crash, and on average about 15 percent of all traffic fatalities include motorcyclists. Motorcyclists and their passengers are particularly vulnerable on the roads, which accounts for their higher percentage of fatal and severe crash accidents. To take appropriate safety measures, it is important to investigate the factors that affect crash injury severity. This part of the study explores the use of two machine learning methods: Random Forest and Support Vector Machine classifiers. The Random Forest model showed better performance, therefore it was used to assess the significance of each type of contributory variable on the crash, person, and vehicle level datasets. The most important factors identified from the crash-level analysis were driver action, vehicle maneuver, type of collision, junction relation and helmet use. The driver injury area, driver action, and presence of alcohol in particular were observed to influence crash injury predictions at the person-level, whereas the vehicle maneuver, most damaged area of the vehicle and the vertical grade of the roadway were found to be relevant to motorcycle injury severity predictions at the vehicle-level. Collectively, this study revealed how motorcycle crash injury severity can be predicted from the identified factors in each data dataset. This finding will assist WYDOT and other transportation agencies in providing proactive solutions for motorcycle crashes