Deploying an ITS Warning System for No-Passing Zones on Two-Lane Rural Roads

A new safety application, as part of ITS Advanced Rural Transportation System (ARTS), has been developed to be deployed on a two-lane rural road (Route 114), in Southwest Virginia. The route segment under study is subject to significant head-on accidents, as a result of two main conditions: 1- Illegal passing maneuvers crossing solid yellow line, and 2- A short passing sight distance due to the road vertical profile. The main objective of this research is to design a video detection-based warning system by installing an affordable and efficient system on the vertical crest curve on Route 114, capable of performing the following two main functions: 1.Detect vehicles that attempt to violate the no-passing zone restriction (i.e. when crossing into the opposing direction). 2.Warn the drivers violating the restriction in order to discourage them from continuing their maneuvers. System architecture as well as detailed system design was developed. A system simulation was conducted with the use of a special software program written with MATLAB. The simulation was applied for both "with" and "without" the system cases. The simulation runs showed that the system could virtually eliminate all head-on collisions, should violators obey the early warning messages displayed. Several sensitivity tests were made for different scenarios. Finally, the viability of the system was evaluated from economic point of view. The financial analysis revealed high economic indicators.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Civil Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• El Zarif, Jamal A.

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Hobeika, Antoine G.
• Rakha, Hesham A.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Trani, Antonio A.
• Kachroo, Pushkin
• Collura, John

• Detection and warning system
• ARTS
• No-passing zone violations
• ITS
• Simulation
• Head-on collisions

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-07032001-173252

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/28195