Browsing by Author "Bell, Stephen"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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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.
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    Evaluation of Truck Parking Needs in a Changing Regulatory Environment
    Bell, Stephen; Alden, Andrew (National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence, 2024-03-15)
    Commercial driver hours-of-service rules were created to ensure that operators of heavy vehicles on US roads have opportunities to receive adequate rest during and between trips. The use of electronic logging devices to replace handwritten logs, along with the implementation of automated vehicle tracking systems, has created a potential opportunity to track the location of truck drivers with respect to their hours-of-service status. It is envisioned that this real-world driving data can inform the siting of new facilities to address a critical, national shortage of safe and convenient truck parking. This investigation sought to provide proof-of-concept for the use of electronically logged hours-of-service data to determine where additional truck parking areas are needed. A sample of this data was purchased from a commercial telematics provider, and a trusted partner was contracted to transform the acquired raw data into a format that could be used within geographic database system to identify where drivers were located as they neared the end of their allowed driving time. This database would also include the locations of existing truck parking facilities so that gaps in coverage could be identified. Unfortunately, the native format of the hours-of-service data as collected and provided was not conducive to creating a continuous record of a driver’s trips that could be synchronized in time with location data. Also, the sample set of real driving data that was provided in line with the project budget contained too few records to be of practical use. Therefore, proof-of-concept was not validated with this effort. It is likely, though, that the evolution of telematic and electronic logging systems, and the perceived value of this type of information, will result in data quality improvements that will enable the type of analysis envisioned. Examples of the problems encountered are described, and lessons learned and suggestions for future efforts have been provided.
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    Feasibility Study for Animal Detection Driver Warning Systems on Corridor Q/Route 460
    Bell, Stephen; Crowder, Tarah; Alden, Andrew S. (2024-03)
    Corridor Q, as part of the Appalachian Development Highway System, is a 14-mile-long addition to US-460 in Buchanan County, Virginia that is currently under construction. The diverse large- and medium-sized wildlife in this area present risks for drivers, requiring an exploration of the different animal-vehicle crash (AVC) mitigation technologies available to state departments of transportation (DOTs). In addition to the wildlife typically found in the area, which already poses a threat to drivers (and vice versa), a local herd of elk was reintroduced to this area between 2012 and 2014 and are often seen along this new roadway. Elk pose additional dangers due to their large body size, herding behavior, and many other unique qualities that set them apart from other similar local species, like white-tailed deer. Elk primarily feed on low-growing vegetation such as the grasses typically used during construction to prevent roadside erosion. Soon after construction began, the elk were observed feeding on the grass along Corridor Q and tended to remain in the area. GPS collar data from tagged elk near Corridor Q reflect this observation. AVCs involving elk are costly, averaging around $73,196 in 2020 US dollars, with more recent estimates of $80,771. AVC mitigation efforts along Corridor Q must consider the unique challenges elk will present to drivers upon completion of the roadway. While many different AVC mitigation techniques are in use today, this project focuses on the feasibility of utilizing animal detection and driver warning systems (AD/DWS) as a cost-effective measure to reduce the risk of AVCs along Corridor Q. AD/DWS combine animal detection (AD) with driver warning (DW) systems to effectively alert drivers of animals near the roadway. ADS are electronic systems that use methods such as tracking motion via camera, thermal imagery, or radar, the breaking of an invisible beam, or perturbation of underground sensors, with the goal of detecting the presence of an animal near the roadway. DWS are signage systems, connected to ADS, that give drivers advanced alerts of animal detection locations. In this study, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute researched the state of AD/DWS technologies to determine the feasibility for their use on Corridor Q, to review products that are currently available to state DOTs as off-the-shelf solutions, and to identify potential locations for a pilot study site. Interviews with subject matter experts were conducted to help guide this research. To ensure a cost-effective approach, an analysis of the partially completed portion of the roadway, and the activity of the local elk population, was conducted to observe the varying characteristics that could distinguish between areas of higher potential risk of elk-vehicle crashes (EVCs) versus areas of lower risk. In doing so, implementation of AD/DWS can be focused on the areas of higher apparent risk, keeping overall costs down while maximizing the effectiveness of these systems. AD/DWS were considered both as standalone options and in combination with other strategies to assess which method is better. As this is a new roadway, typical analysis methods used for assessing AVC mitigation strategies, such as historic crash data and traffic volume data, could not be applied. Some elk in the area were collared with GPS tracking devices, allowing for an analysis of their movement around and near the roadway. Additionally, the Virginia DOT (VDOT) provided as-built data of the new roadway, and georeferenced footage was recorded to assist with the analysis. Ultimately, the roadway was classified into distinct sections where conditions were indicative of a higher risk of EVCs based on an analysis of the data collected for this project. Details on these sections were provided to three vendors with different potential AD/DWS products that VDOT could readily purchase. These vendors provided their assessments and costs of implementing their solutions along Corridor Q.