• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.77-82
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• 2016

PURPOSES : This paper proposes a reliability index for the safety evaluation of freeway sections. It establishes a reliability index as a safety surrogate on freeways considering speeds and speed dispersions. METHODS : We collated values of design elements including radii, curve lengths, vertical slopes (absolute values), superelevations, and vertical slopes from seven freeway sections in Korea. We also collected data about driving speeds, traffic accidents, and their deviations. We established a reliability index using these variables. RESULTS : The average radii, curve lengths, and superelevations are highly correlated with the incidence of traffic accidents. Deviations in radius and curve lengths show an especially high correlation. The reliability index, derived from speed and speed dispersions of the seven freeway sections, also correlated highly with accidents with a correlation index of 0.63. CONCLUSIONS : Since the reliability index obtained from speed and speed dispersions are highly correlated with traffic accidents, we conclude that a reliability index can be a safety surrogate on freeways considering speeds and speed dispersions together in terms of design and operational levels.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.59-70
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• 2009

This study presents a novel traffic information system which is capable of detecting unsafe traffic events leading to accident occurrence and providing warning information to drivers for safer driving. Unsafe traffic events are captured by a vehicle image processing-based detection system in real time. Surrogate safety measures (SSM) representing quantitative accident potentials were derived, and further utilized to develop a data processing algorithm and analysis techniques in the proposed system. This study also defined 'emergency warning area' and 'general warning area' for more effective provision of warning information. In addition, methodologies for determining thresholds to trigger warning information were presented. Technical issues and further studies to fully exploit the benefits of the proposed system were discussed. It is expected that the proposed system would be effective for better management of traffic flow to prevent traffic accidents on freeways.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.145-155
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• 2012

PURPOSES: This study proposes a novel method based on microscopic simulation models to evaluate bicycle passing ways in mixed traffic flow conditions at signalized intersections. METHODS: Both operational efficiency and safety are taken into consideration in the evaluation. A widely used performance measure, delay, is used for evaluating the operational efficiency. Regarding the safety evaluation, surrogate safety measures (SSM) to represent traffic conflicts and the level of crash severity, DeltaS and Max.DeltaV, are applied in the proposed method. RESULTS: Extensive simulations and statistical tests show that an integrated bike-box way is identified as the best in terms of operational efficiency and safety. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method and outcomes of this study will be valuable for bicycle traffic operations and facility design.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.1-14
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• 2011

The surrogate safety assessment model which was developed based on the conflict theory by FHWA in the US is software to analyze traffic conflicts using the individual vehicle trajectory data from a microscopic traffic simulation model. This study aims at assessing the safety of different signal control strategies, including pre-time and actuated signal control, using the SSAM. To this end, this study effort has developed a microscopic traffic simulation model using VISSIM through a field study, and then produced the surrogate measures, including TTC, PET, DR, MaxS and DeltaS, and the numbers of conflicts, including rear-end, right angle and lane-changing conflicts. The assessment results indicated that the actuated signal control may produce more conflicts in terms of rear-end conflicts. The use of SSAM in the safety assessments for diverse traffic alternatives in a safe and fast way may contribute to the improvement of safety in the roadway transportation.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.73-87
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• 2023

Furnishing traffic safety information can contribute to providing hazard warnings to drivers, thereby avoiding crashes. A smart road lighting platform that instantly recognizes road conditions using various sensors and provides appropriate traffic safety information has therefore been developed. This study analyzes the short-term traffic safety improvement effects of the smart road lighting's tunnel traffic safety information service using surrogate safety measures (SSM). Individual driving behavior was investigated by applying the vehicle trajectory data collected with RADAR in the Anin Avalanche 1 and 2 tunnel sections in Gangneung. Comparing accumulated speeding, speed variation, time-to-collision, and deceleration rate to avoid the crash before and after providing traffic safety information, all SSMs showed significant improvement, indicating that the tunnel traffic safety information service is beneficial in improving traffic safety. Analyzing potential crash risk in the subdivided tunnel and access road sections revealed that providing traffic safety information reduced the probability of traffic accidents in most segments. The results of this study will be valuable for analyzing the short-term quantitative effects of traffic safety information services.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.42-60
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• 2024

This study analyzed the characteristics of mixed traffic flows with autonomous vehicles on highway weaving sections and assessed the safety of vehicle-following pairs based on surrogate safety indicators. The intelligent driver model (IDM) was utilized to emulate the driving behavior of autonomous vehicles, and the weaving sections were divided into lengths of 300 and 600 meters for analysis within a micro-traffic simulation (VISSIM). Although significant differences were found in the average speed, density, and headway between the two sections through t-test results, no significant differences were observed when comparing the number of conflicts per indicator and the vehicle-following pair. Four safety indicators were selected for the mixed traffic evaluation based on their ability to represent risk levels similar to those perceived by drivers. The safety analysis, based on the selected four indicators, determined that autonomous vehicles following other autonomous vehicles were the safest pairing. Future research should focus on integrating these indicators into a single comprehensive index for analysis.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.68-80
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• 2016

Interest in freeway truck traffic has increased largely due to greater safety concerns regarding truck-related crashes. The negative interactions between slow-moving trucks and other vehicles are a primary cause of hazardous conditions, which lead to crashes with larger speed variations. To improve operational efficiency and safety, providing a climbing lane that separates slow-moving trucks from higher performance vehicles is frequently considered when upgrading geometrics. This study developed an operations strategy for freeway climbing lanes based on traffic conditions in real time. To consider traffic safety when designing a dynamic strategy to determine whether a climbing lane is closed or open, various factors, including the level of service (LOS) and the percentage of trucks, are investigated through microscopic simulations. A microscopic traffic simulator, VISSIM, was used to simulate freeway traffic streams and collect vehicle-maneuvering data. Additionally, an external application program interface, VISSIM's COM-interface, was used to implement the proposed climbing lane operations strategies. Surrogate safety measures (SSM), including the frequency of rear-end conflicts and, were used to quantitatively evaluate the traffic safety using an analysis of individual vehicle trajectories obtained from VISSIM simulations with various operations scenarios. It is expected that the proposed algorithm can be the backbone for operating the climbing lane in real time for safer traffic management.

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

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.109-117
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• 2016

PURPOSES : The goal of this study is to analyze the operational effects of special roundabouts at large-scale rotaries in Korea. In pursuing the above, this study gives particular attention to comparing standard roundabouts with special roundabouts. METHODS : This study reviews the various types of roundabouts, creates 270 scenarios, builds networks, and comparatively analyzes the operational effects by using VISSIM simulation model and SSAM(Surrogate Safety Assessment Model). RESULTS : First, the operational effects of standard and signalized roundabouts were analyzed, and it was determined that standard roundabouts are the best in the case of under-saturated traffic volume, and signalized roundabouts are the best in the case of over-saturated traffic volume. Second, the operational benefits of a Turbo roundabout were evaluated to be generally lower than the benefits of a standard roundabout, and the benefits of a Turbo roundabout increase when right-turn traffic volume increases. Finally, the safety conflicts of a Turbo roundabout were determined to be the least and decrease when right-turn traffic volume increases. CONCLUSIONS : This study suggests that Turbo roundabouts rank highest for safety, and signalized roundabouts are best for over-saturated traffic volume. This study can be expected to provide some implications for policy decision-making.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.21-32
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• 2012

Exclusive bus lane (EBL) is typically located in the roadway median, and is accessed by weaving across the GPLs(general purpose lanes) before entering from the left lane of the GPLs. To maximize the potential for successful EBL operations, a critical design issue that requires special attention is the length of bus weaving section before entering EBL. The process of developing guidelines for the length of bus weaving section can be supported by a sensitivity analysis of performance measure (safety) with respect to the bus weaving distance. However, field data are difficult to obtain due to inherent complexity in creating performance measure (safety) samples under various interesting flows and bus weaving distance that are keys to research success. In this paper, VISSIM simulation is applied to simulate the operation of roadway weaving areas with EBL, and based on vehicle trajectory data from microscopic traffic simulation models, the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) computes the number of surrogate conflicts (or degree of safety) with respect to the bus weaving distance. Then, a multiple linear regression (MLR) model using safety data (number of surrogate conflicts) is developed. Finally, guidelines for bus weaving distance are established based on the developed MLR. Developed guidelines explicitly indicate that a longer bus weaving distance is required to maintain desired safety as weaving volume increases.