SPONSOR: Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium, PSU, ASU

BUDGET: $60,000

ABSTRACT: Traffic oscillations (also known as stop-and-go driving) are a typical feature of congested traffic flow. They are known to increase fuel consumption and emissions, and decrease driving comfort. It is also speculated that larger amplitudes of oscillations (i.e. larger changes in flow or speed) increase the probability of certain crash types (e.g. rear-end crashes). However, no current study exists that irrefutably confirms or disproves this speculation. The objective of this research is to find empirical evidence to substantiate this hypothesis and to quantify the relationship between the amplitude of oscillations and probability of crash event. This proposed research will be conducted using freeway traffic and incident data. It will be supplemented by a statewide database of reported motor vehicle crashes. Various features of oscillations (e.g. amplitude, period, etc.) will be measured from traffic data collected from inductive loop detectors. Existing databases for crashes and incidents will be used to analyze incidents in correlation with oscillations. All the data necessary for this research are available via Portland Oregon Regional Transportation Archiving List (PORTAL), which provides several years of archived data and a wealth of supporting data and statistics. Use of this archive will minimize the research team

PRODUCTS:

thesis Sandeep Puppala, "A Preliminary Investigation of the Effects of Traffic Oscillations on Freeway Safety ." Masters Project Report, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Portland State University, March 2009