Safety through Disruption (SAFE-D) University Transportation Center (UTC)

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Browsing Safety through Disruption (SAFE-D) University Transportation Center (UTC) by Author "Bell, Stephen"

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    Connected Vehicle Information for Improving Safety Related to Unknown or Inadequate Truck Parking
    Katsikides, Nicole; Gick, Brittney N.; Parab, Smruti; Hwang, William "Billy"; Lee, Dahye; Montes de Oca, Jose Rivera; Farzaneh, Reza; Kong, Xiaoqiang "Jack"; Srisan, Tat; Bell, Stephen; Alden, Andy S.; Warner, Jeff; Schrank, David (Safe-D National UTC, 2022-10)
    Safety issues due to commercial truck parking shortages are a national concern. National hours-of-service (HOS) regulations limit drivers’ time on the road to increase safety by limiting fatigue. This requires drivers to locate safe, secure, and legal parking wherever they are when or before they hit their limits. If drive time is exhausted with no nearby truck parking, drivers may park in unsafe or unauthorized locations to meet HOS requirements, or they may continue to drive while fatigued. As a result, there are intrinsic safety implications to all highway users due to large trucks parking in unsafe locations or truck drivers driving past their allotted hours. With the projected growth of truck traffic, the demand for adequate truck parking will continue to outpace the supply of public and private parking facilities. The current study will help transportation agencies develop solutions to the parking availability problem by identifying effective methods for using data to estimate truck parking demand and areas of parking opportunity, assessing available data sources for estimating truck parking demand and supply, and determining the safest solutions for distributing information on parking availability directly to drivers.
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    Curb Management Practices and Effectiveness in Improving Safety
    Hansen, Todd; Elgart, Zachary; Bell, Stephen; Hu, Zhiheng; Wood, Nick; Alden, Andy (Safe-D National UTC, 2022-11)
    Curbside access has been a growing concern in cities over the last decade as on-demand passenger or goods transportation services have proliferated. Increased activity at key loading and unloading points may increase the risk of crashes and collisions between vehicles or with nearby active travelers as vehicles maneuver to access curbside spaces and others maneuver around them. This research project investigated linkages between curb management practices and safety among travelers as vehicles navigate to and from designated curb zones within a multimodal urban environment. The project analyzed the effectiveness of curb management practices in improving safety through reduced collisions between vehicles and other travelers. The project also investigated existing curb management practices across the United States to understand safety considerations and related perspectives of cities, community stakeholders, and industry organizations. The team collected video data of curbside zone utilization in Roanoke, Virginia, and synthesized observed interactions for analysis of a small city curbside zone site. The results include interview and focus group discussions on curb management and safety considerations as well as discussion of the approach and method for primary data collection in measuring curbside safety.