Browsing by Author "Rada, Gonzalo R."

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14
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    Development Of A Pavement Condition Assessment Method For The Interstate Highway System
    Simpson, Amy; Groeger, Jonathan; Rada, Gonzalo R.; Guerre, Joseph (2012)
    As part of a project conducted by the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), methods are being developed to assess infrastructure condition and health with a focus on pavements on the Interstate Highway System. The project scope includes development of prototype tools to provide FHWA and State DOTs ready access to key information on pavement and bridge performance based on these methods for assessing condition and health. These tools are designed to allow a better and more complete view of infrastructure health nationally and form the foundation for a performance management system for the US highway system. In support of this goal, a pilot study was conducted on a three-state corridor to investigate and compare methods for assessing pavement condition and, subsequently, health. As part of the pilot, three sets of data were compiled, processed, and compared: National (Highway Performance Monitoring System), State (primarily State Pavement Management System data and supporting information), and field data collection using an automated multi-function vehicle. This paper explores the results on the approach for categorizing pavement condition as Good/Fair/Poor. A summary of the findings are presented along with recommendations for future activities necessary to develop a pavement condition performance indicator.
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    Development of Human Factors Guidelines for Advanced Traveler Information Systems and Commercial Vehicle Operations: ATIS Function Transitions
    Campbell, J. L.; Hanowski, Richard J.; Hooey, B. L.; Gore, B. F.; Kantowitz, Barry H. (United States. Federal Highway Administration, 1999-12)
    The objective of the first experiment reported below was to measure the cognitive demands associated with transitioning across Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) functions. This required the development of both objective and subjective indices of driver behavior and cognition. To accomplish this, a small number of pre-drive trip scenarios that invoke appropriate transitions across ATIS functions were developed. Driving performance under more representative conditions was investigated in experiment 2 using a driving simulator. This study investigated several issues on the influence of an ATIS on driving behavior. The questions asked were: 1. How does a moving map display of the current vehicle location influence driving performance? 2. How do ATIS control inputs influence driving performance? Should they be allocated to pre-drive? Is it too much to expect the driver to do while in transit? 3. Do ATIS messages affect drivers' reactions to roadway events? 4. Does message potency affect drivers' reactions to roadway events? Overall, the two experiments reported here suggest that in-vehicle ATIS devices can be learned, understood, and successfully used by drivers for both pre-drive trip planning tasks and on-road driving conditions. ATIS devices have the potential to improve driver compliance to regulatory information, as compared with standard roadside signs. While concurrent visual and auditory ATIS alert messages may be beneficial, the visual ATIS messages alone are significantly better than roadside signage alone. While cognitive demands associated with ATIS transitions and ATIS complexity should continue to be a concern, these demands can be addressed by selecting ATIS functions with clear benefits to the driving task.
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    Enhanced Night Visibility Series, Volume XIII Phase III - Study 1: Evaluation of Discomfort Glare During Nighttime Driving in Clear Weather
    McLaughlin, Shane B.; Hankey, Jonathan M.; Dingus, Thomas A. (United States. Federal Highway Administration, 2005)
    Phase III-- Study 1 was performed to further explore findings on far infrared (FIR) systems from Phase II, to investigate near infrared (NIR) and high intensity discharge (HID) technologies, and to investigate detection and recognition of retroreflective infrastructure components. The empirical testing for this study was performed at the Virginia Smart Road testing facility during clear weather conditions. A total of 18 participants were involved in the study. A 6 by 3 by 17 mixed-factorial design was used to investigate the effects of 6 different types of vision enhancement systems, 3 age groups, and 17 object presentations on detection and recognition distances; subjective evaluations were obtained for the different systems as well. The results of the empirical testing suggest that infrared (IR) systems, when designed correctly, can provide pedestrian detection benefit in clear weather, particularly for pedestrians in dark clothing and veiled in the glare of oncoming headlamps. A wider field of view display appears to facilitate detection in curves of 1,250-m radius. Retroreflective objects may be detected earlier in an NIR display, but require direct visual observation to recognize the object or read signage. HID systems did not provide detection benefit over the baseline halogen headlamps tested.
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    Evaluation of Accuracy and Precision of Several Highway Speed Deflection Devices
    Rada, Gonzalo R.; Visintine, Beth A.; Rocha, Sergio; Velarde, Jorge; Gallardo, Paola; Nazarian, Soheil; Siddharthan, Rajaratnam V.; Nasimifar, Seyyed (2014-09)
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    Investigation of Applicability and Use of a Pavement Response Model with High Speed Deflection Devices (HSDDs)
    Siddharthan, Rajaratnam V.; Nasimifar, Mahdi; Rada, Gonzalo R.; Nazarian, Soheil; Sivaneswaran, Nadarajah; Thyagarajan, Senthilmurugan (2014-09)
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    Measures of Pavement Performance Must Consider the Road User
    Hudson, W. Ronald; Haas, Ralph; Perrone, Eric (2015-06-04)
    In 1960, Bill Carey and Paul Irick developed the Present Serviceability Index (PSI) as a user-based performance measure to define pavement quality and failure at the AASHO Road Test, a controlled load experiment that cost $300 million in 2014 dollars (1). The Canadians used the same approach in creating their Riding Comfort Index, but on a 0 to 10 scale. The PSI method was adopted and used worldwide to define pavement quality until the early 1990's when FHWA arbitrarily adopted International Roughness Index (IRI). It was intended as a measure of quality for HPMS (Highway Performance Monitoring System) data because IRI was touted to be standard and universal by the World Bank. PSI is still used by many agencies around the world but most state DOTs felt forced to follow FHWA and adopt IRI. The IRI is not standard state-to-state and more importantly the levels of "acceptability" and "failure," which must be set to define performance, vary from state-to-state. The US Federal MAP-21 requires state DOTs to do broader "performance" management and develop acceptable pavement performance measures (2). PSI is tied to road user response but IRI is not. This paper examines these indexes and how they derived. It contends that PSI can serve all levels of need while IRI does not, because it is not understood by highway users and legislators. PSI reflects human rider response and IRI does not close that gap.
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    A Multi-Objective Asset Management Approach to Evaluate Maintenance Strategies for Funding Allocation
    Chang, Carlos M.; Vavrova, Marketa; Smith, Roger E.; Tan, Sui G. (2015-05-19)
    Modern asset management aims to provide the user's expected level of service in the transportation infrastructure assets in the most cost-effective manner while also accounting for broader social and environmental impacts. The decision-making process is complex due to many potential conflicting goals that need to be balanced in the final solution. This paper describes a holistic multi-objective asset management approach to integrate environmental related measures with traditional performance measures. A robust framework for managing infrastructure assets is proposed for implementation, and a case study focused on asphalt concrete (AC) pavements demonstrates its applicability, evaluating various maintenance strategies from a multi-objective perspective. The case study shows that timely applied preservation leads to lower emissions and lower fuel consumption. In the example, savings estimates of 662,310,738 kg CO2 over a 20 year period that are equivalent to $31 million in social costs for a 940 mile network. By considering economic, environmental, and social impacts; the multi-objective asset management approach improves the decision making process and contribute to better balanced funding allocation decisions when developing maintenance strategies.
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    New Jersey Micro-Surface Pavement Noise Evaluation
    Hencken, John; Haas, Edwin; Tulanowski, Michael; Bennert, Thomas (2015-05-21)
    New Jersey DOT is evaluating pavement preservation types for interstate resurfacing as a method to increase network pavement life cycles within depressed budgetary limits. Despite the economic benefits for micro-surface there is concern for the noise quality and pavement noise levels, which will become a significant issue to a greater population as the application increases over an increased area of lane miles throughout the state. Pavement noise research has been conducted on in-service pavements throughout NJ for several years, but prior to this study minimal data had been collected on traditional micro-service mix employed state-wide. Three traditional micro-surfaces were evaluated at 72.4 km/h (45 mph) with the On-Board Sound Intensity (OBSI) method. Additionally, three innovative flexible micro-surfaces with varying parameters were evaluated as well. Initial noise levels for NJ's traditional micro-surface overall levels varied between 98.0 dBA and 102.4 dBA. The flexible micro-surfaces exhibited a similar range. This paper evaluates the overall and spectral differences found between the traditional and flexible micro-surfaces.
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    Pavement Remaining Service Interval: A Logical Replacement to Remaining Service Life Concept
    Sivaneswaran, Nadarajah; Visintine, Beth A.; Rada, Gonzalo R.; Elkins, Gary E.; Thyagarajan, Senthilmurugan (2015-06-04)
    The process of providing and managing a pavement network requires a plethora of decisions to be made. At the heart of those decisions is the prediction of future construction events, but many issues exist with the current remaining service life (RSL) terminology that confuse, confound, and complicate proper interpretation, interagency data exchange, and use. The major source of ambiguity with RSL is the use of the term "life" to represent different points in the construction time-line. There could be up to four different types of future construction events on which a RSL definition could be based, depending on the condition of the pavement, and it is impossible for a single number called RSL to properly describe all of these future construction events. The recommended path to consistency involves adopting terminology of time remaining until a defined construction treatment is required. RSL is replaced by "Remaining Service Interval" or "RSI" This terminology has the ability to unify the outcome of different approaches for determining needs by focusing on when and what treatments are needed, and the service interruption created. This paper explains the RSI concept and outlines the validation efforts using State Highway Agencies and the Pavement Health Track analysis tool at the national level. It also details how RSI can contribute to the requirements of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) legislation.
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    Synthesis of Literature and Operating Safety Practices Related to Cell Phone/Personal Data Assistant Use in Commercial Truck and Bus Operations (Technical Report)
    Morgan, Justin F.; Trimble, Tammy E.; Bowman, Darrell Scott; Baker, Stephanie Ann; Pickett, Raquel; Murray, Dan; Bergoffen, Gene (United States. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 2011-04)
    There is an increasing awareness of the role of driver distraction in commercial motor vehicle crashes. This study presents the results of efforts to expand current knowledge of truck and motorcoach industry practices regarding commercial driver distraction. The project involved a thorough literature review on driver distraction. Little research specifically addressed commercial driver distraction; those studies that did examine commercial driving typically found significant degradations in driver performance due to visually demanding device use. However, the findings of automotive driver distraction research vary based on the type of examination (i.e., simulator, test-track, or naturalistic data collection methods) and the aspect of phone use. These findings, in light of the importance and potential safety risks posed by driver distraction, may help guide further research into the nature and magnitude of distraction faced by CMV drivers as part of their normal job functions.
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    Synthesis Study of Light Vehicle Non-planar Mirror Research
    Morgan, Justin F.; Blanco, Myra (United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2010-05)
    Due to the requirement for a planar rearview mirror on the driver side of light vehicles, and drivers' typical aiming of rearview mirrors, a large blind spot is adjacent to the car. This blind spot can conceal a vehicle, which may increase the risk of lane-change collisions. Non-planar rearview mirrors present the driver with a greater field of view; however, they also provide a minified image. Laboratory and stationary-driver testing have consistently shown that non-planar mirrors are associated with overestimations in distance and speed. However, there is less consistency in findings for on-road testing, as the magnitude and practical effect of overestimation varies. Likewise, lane-change crash rates in Europe do not appear to be affected by non-planar mirror use. The ability of drivers to detect and react to an object is aided by nonplanar mirrors. This, and the interior planar rearview mirror, may offset overestimation and the effect of smaller accepted gaps. Additional research is needed to determine the effect of non-planar rearview mirrors on crash rates and driver acceptance, as well as the possibility of different configurations, of non-planar mirrors within the United States.
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    Use of Emerging Technologies in support of Pavement Preservation Decision Making
    Rada, Gonzalo R.; Visintine, Beth A.; Hicks, R. Gary; Cheng, DingXin; Van, Thomas P. (2015-06-04)
    Pavement preservation represents a proactive approach to maintaining and extending the lives of existing highways. Not surprisingly, pavement performance is at the heart of the preservation decision-making process. Traditionally, non-structural factors, such as distress and ride quality, have been used as the primary indicators for pavement preservation strategy selection and timing. However, these factors do not address structural condition, which is of great significance since the concept of preservation is predicated upon applying treatments to structurally sound pavements. Accordingly, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) undertook a study to identify emerging technologies to better characterize pavement conditions, predict future deterioration and demonstrate their applicability in the selection and timing of preservation strategies. As part of this study, a literature review and expert interviews were conducted to build a foundation for identifying and evaluating technologies. The evaluation process resulted in four technologies being recommended based on their potential application for pavement evaluation and forecasting. Case study reviews of these technologies were prepared, which highlighted the benefits provided by implementation of the technologies by agencies as well as some of the challenges faced during implementation. This paper focuses on the use of the recommended technologies within the pavement preservation operations of highway agencies. To accomplish this, relevant information extracted from the case study reviews as well as implementation considerations developed during the study are presented in the paper.
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    The Use of GPS-Based Distress Mapping to Improve Pavement Management
    Dzwilewski, Peter-Paul; Long, Genevieve; Wade, Monty (2015-06-04)
    Utilizing recent inspection data of portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements at airports and military installations in the United States and Canada, the enhancement of long-term pavement management through Global Positioning Satellite (GPS)-based distress mapping is examined. Specifically, examples of distress pattern identification, improvements to the determination of localized maintenance repair quantities, the process of selecting appropriate rehabilitation methods, and applying identified deficiencies to future construction and repair projects are discussed. Distress pattern identification illustrates how various types of distresses within and across slabs are related to one another, which allows for the isolation of required repairs and leads to more effective maintenance planning. Comparisons between actual repair quantities from the distress mapping process and standard repair quantities from pavement management software are also analyzed. Distress mapping allows maintenance needs to be located and repaired by maintenance crews, and provides more accurate funding requirements for improved planning. It also offers the ability the track the progression of distresses and the effectiveness of repairs over time. Distress mapping also provides greater insight to selecting the proper rehabilitation method. Pavement repair options can be weighed against rehabilitation or reconstruction options to determine what option will yield the best combination of future pavement condition, cost, and operational requirements. In some instances, the existing distresses can assist in modifying current design, construction, or repair methods being employed. With these benefits, distress mapping can improve the pavement condition and reduce the overall funding requirements.
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    Use of High-Speed Deflection Devices in Network-Level PMS Applications: Are We Ready?
    Rada, Gonzalo R.; Nazarian, Soheil; Visintine, Beth A.; Siddharthan, Rajaratnam V.; Sivaneswaran, Nadarajah (2015-06-04)
    As highway agencies begin to consider structural adequacy as part of their routine pavement management activities by incorporating deflection testing, it is important to advance from falling weight deflectometers (FWDs) to a more viable alternative for network-level applications. The development of devices that measure pavement deflections at traffic speeds represents this viable alternative. The modern versions of the devices include the Greenwood Traffic Speed Deflectometer (TSD) and the Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) Rolling Wheel Deflectometer (RWD), but are these devices ready for implementation? To answer this question, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) undertook a study whose objective was to establish a reliable measure of the structural condition of pavements as it deteriorates over time under traffic and environmental loading, based on deflection measurements taken at traffic speeds. As part of the study, a literature review was conducted and questionnaires were developed for and provided to device manufacturers, owners and users, which were then followed-up by interviews. Both devices were found to be viable, so a work plan was developed and implemented to evaluate them. The work plan included field-testing and analysis activities, but it purposely did not contemplate comparisons with Falling Weight deflectometers (FWDs). This paper presents the major findings, conclusions and recommendations from the project effort to date. The only remaining activity is the development of processes for incorporating pavement structural information within pavement management system (PMS) applications.