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Current Issue | Previous Issues | Subscribe September 2007 - Vol. 5, No. 8

Policy and Planning

Oberstar Forum to focus on nation’s transportation infrastructure

The earth shook on August 1 when the I-35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River. Since the tragedy, people across the country are questioning whether their own roads and bridges will get them home at night–and public officials are looking for answers. In the wake of the collapse, the sixth James L. Oberstar Forum on Transportation Policy and Technology will look for solutions to the challenges posed by the nation’s aging infrastructure. The forum–titled "The Condition of Our Nation’s Transportation Infrastructure: Heading Toward a Crisis?"–will be held October 8 in Minneapolis.

More information is available on the Oberstar Forum Event Page.

Intelligent Transportation Systems

Final rural intersection safety reports: technology to prevent crashes

The Rural Intersection Decision Support research effort at the University of Minnesota set out to develop innovative technologies to prevent crashes at rural intersections. An interdisciplinary research team carried out extensive analyses of rural crash statistics and designed a system to help drivers negotiate dangerous intersections without the need for traffic signals, which can disrupt traffic and often lead to increased rates of rear-end collisions.

A new research summary and final research reports detail the Minnesota team’s efforts and the accomplishments of this groundbreaking research. The research team included ITS Institute director Max Donath, HumanFIRST Program Program director Nic Ward, and Intelligent Vehicles Program director Craig Shankwitz as well as many other researchers drawn from engineering, human factors, and associated disciplines.

The National Safety Council estimates that 32 percent of all rural crashes occur at intersections; 16 percent of all fatalities on rural highways are intersection related. To address this problem, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the University of Minnesota’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute Institute partnered with researchers and transportation departments in California and Virginia as well as the Federal Highway Administration in a pooled-fund consortium dedicated to improving intersection safety.

The Rural IDS research program achieved four main research results:

• an analysis of rural expressway intersections, including development of a technique to identify those with higher-than-expected crash rates;
• the development of a statistical model that can be used to estimate the benefits of deploying IDS at a specific rural intersection;
• the design and implementation of a rural intersection surveillance and data acquisition system capable of quantifying the behavior of drivers;
• a task analysis, design study, and simulator-based evaluation of Driver Infrastructure Interface (DII) concepts for communicating relevant information to stopped drivers.

The research undertaken in the Rural IDS research program laid the foundation for Minnesota’s participation in the Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance Systems (CICAS) research initiative, which brings together federal agencies, automobile manufacturers, and university transportation centers with the goal of developing new technologies to prevent collisions.

Intersection Decision Support: An Overview (Mn/DOT 2007-33) is available from the CTS Web site. Previous reports in the series, providing detailed information on various aspects of the research, are also available.

Advanced Transportation Technologies Seminar series

The ITS Institute’s Advanced Transportation Technologies Seminar Series got underway September 11 with a presentation by Michael Rakauskas of the HumanFIRST Program. "Driving Performance During 511 Traveler Information Retrieval" covered current research into the safety implications of accessing Minnesota’s 511 traveler information system with cellular phones while driving.

Seminars are held on alternate Tuesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 in room 1130 of the Mechanical Engineering Building, located on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities East Bank campus. For more information on the seminars, visit the ITS Institute Web site.

The Advanced Transportation Technologies Seminar Series alternates with CTS Research Seminars, (every other week at the same time and location) covering a variety of transportation related topics.

Civil engineering researcher gets SMART

Assistant professor Henry Liu of the Department of Civil Engineering is an expert on traffic signal control, and developing better control strategies to keep traffic flowing smoothly is a major part of his research. Liu’s SMART-Signals data collection system (the name stands for "Systematic Monitoring of Arterial Road Traffic Signals") is designed to gather data about the interactions between traffic and signal timing at unprecedented levels of detail.

Liu’s research was recently featured on the Civil Engineering Department Web site.

Safety

Technology to help teens drive safely

For many teenagers, a set of car keys bring an unbridled sense of freedom and a yearning to hit the road. But all too often, the youthful enthusiasm that accompanies this new freedom masks very real dangers. According to the Centers for Disease Control, motor vehicle crashes claim the lives of more teenagers every year than any other single cause of death.

The issue of teen driving safety motivated an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Minnesota to take action. Legal expert Stephen Simon of the Law School joined HumanFIRST Program director Nic Ward, graduate student Shawn Brovold, and ITS Institute director Max Donath in developing an experimental in-vehicle monitoring and feedback system intended to monitor driving behavior and provide real-time feedback to help teens avoid crashes.

The Teen Driver Support System (TDSS) takes a three-pronged approach to safety, employing forcing, feedback, and reporting functions to ensure compliance with regulations and encourage safe driving.

• The forcing function includes ignition interlocks that prevent vehicle operation without the use of a seat belt or when alcohol is detected through an onboard breath analyzer.
• The feedback function provides the driver with real-time warnings of unsafe speeds or vehicle maneuvers; this function makes use of an onboard geospatial database and dynamic information on weather and road conditions. Warnings are issued if the driver exceeds a speed limit or if they are approaching a potentially dangerous curve too fast.
• The reporting function issues immediate reports of infractions or unsafe activities, in the form of text messages, to parents or authorities; it also provides after-the-fact reporting of the teen driver’s actions behind the wheel.

Together, these functions give valuable insights into the behavior of new drivers, and help the drivers themselves learn good driving skills. In addition, the reporting function serves as a foundation for rewarding good driving behavior and imposing consequences on illegal or dangerous activities.

Brovold demonstrated the prototype TDSS in a local news broadcast earlier this year, showing how the system used information from vehicle sensors and digital maps to monitor and respond to the driver’s actions.

The development of the TDSS is documented in a new research report, Developing Driver Support Systems to Mitigate Behavioral Risk Patterns Among Teen Drivers (CTS 07-05), available from the ITS Institute Web site.

New design requirements for Minnesota low-volume concrete pavements

A new mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG), recently proposed for use in the United States and developed by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, includes significant changes in the methods used to design roadway pavements. A research team led by professor Lev Khazanovich of the Department of Civil Engineering took on the task of adapting the new procedures and recommendations for Minnesota low-volume Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements.

The mechanistic-empirical performance prediction models in the MEPDG were calibrated using nationwide pavement performance data. Although data from the MnROAD pavement research facility were used in calibration, the researchers concluded that it was necessary to perform calibrations against a wider range of Minnesota variables to achieve a practical procedure for pavement design. It was also necessary to evaluate the performance of in-service pavements to establish reasonable distress threshold criteria for use in the guide.

The adaptation research included several objectives:

• To evaluate MEPDG default inputs
• To evaluate the prediction capabilities of the MEPDG
• To recalibrate, if necessary, the MEPDG performance prediction models
• To develop a prototype design catalog for Minnesota low-volume concrete roads

The procedures and results of this research are documented in a new report available from the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Adaptation of the 2002 Guide for the Design of Minnesota Low-Volume Portland Cement Concrete Pavements (Mn/DOT 2007-23) is available from the CTS Web site.

Upcoming Events

Here are selected events related to transportation research. Visit the CTS Web site, www.cts.umn.edu/events, for more comprehensive event information. You may also subscribe to e-mail event announcements using our subscription form.

September 17–18
Toward Zero Deaths Conference, Duluth. Contact Shirley Mueffelman, 612-624-4754, cceconf2@umn.edu. More

October 8
Sixth James L. Oberstar Forum on Transportation Policy and Technology, Minneapolis. Contact Julie Grazier, 612-624-3708, cceconf5@umn.edu. More

October 16
Intelligent Transportation Society of Minnesota (ITS Mn) Fall Industry Forum. Contact Julie Grazier, 612-624-3708, cceconf5@umn.edu. More

October 23
Center for Transportation Studies 20th Anniversary Reception. McNamara Alumni Center, University of Minnesota East Bank Minneapolis Campus. Contact Julie Grazier, 612-624-3708, cceconf5@umn.edu. More

October 29–31
Minnesota Public Transit Conference, St. Cloud Civic Center. For more information, see www.mpta-transit.org or contact Tony Kellen, 320-251-1499x103, tkellen@stcloudmtc.com. More

November 30
11th Annual CTS Freight and Logistics Symposium, Minneapolis. Contact Julie Grazier, 612-624-3708, cceconf5@umn.edu. More