Browsing by Subject "Performance measurement"
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Item Development of a Road Condition Recovery Time Estimation System for Winter Snow Events(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2018-01) Kwon, Eil; Park, ChongmyungThis research develops a Normal Condition Regain Time (NCRT) estimation system, which automatically determines the NCRT at detector stations on the metro-freeway network for given snow events. The NCRT process is based on the findings that the speed level during the recovery process reaches a stable free-flow-speed (FFS), whose value is generally lower than the pre-snow FFS at a same location. Further, the speed-density (U-K) relationship of the traffic flow after snow is cleared exhibits a similar but shifted-down pattern of the normal-day U-K relationship at a given location. In this study, the after-snow traffic condition with a stable but shifted-sown pattern of the normal-day U-K relationship is defined as the ‘wet-normal’ condition, and the NCRT is defined as the time when the U-K data during a snow event starts to follow the wet-normal U-K pattern at a given station. The NCRT estimation system first collects the traffic and weather data for the metro-freeway network and determines the normal-day U-K relationships for the detector stations whose traffic data include both uncongested and congested regions. The normal-day U-K relationships are then applied to calibrate the wet-normal U-K patterns at given locations using the traffic data collected during snow events. Finally, the NCRTs are determined for each station by comparing the U-K data trajectory during a given event with the wet-normal U-K pattern at given locations. The NCRT estimation system has been applied to a set of the sample snow events.Item Development of a Sensor Platform for Roadway Mapping: Part A - Road Centerline and Asset Management(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2014-06) Davis, Brian; Donath, MaxCollecting information about the roadway infrastructure is a task that DOTs at all governmental levels need to accomplish. One way to increase the operational efficiency of these efforts is to use a relatively inexpensive mobile data collection platform that acquires information that is general enough to serve multiple purposes. The design and evaluation of one such platform that costs roughly $40,000 is described. It primarily consists of a differential GPS receiver providing vehicle location, and a LIDAR scanner that generates geometric profiles of the area between the vehicle and just beyond the road’s edge. The vehicle collects data along the road by driving it in both directions. The system post-processes the data to automate feature extraction. For roads with simple geometry such as two-lane, undivided highways, the road’s centerline can be calculated by finding the midline between the vehicle’s paths from each direction of travel. Algorithms process the LIDAR scans to automatically detect the presence of curbs and guardrails, which is then combined with location information to yield the position of these features in world coordinates. The centerline calculation was determined to be accurate to within 6 cm in areas where its use was applicable. Curbs and guardrails were generally detected with an accuracy of better than 10 cm. The results demonstrate that it is feasible to use a relatively inexpensive mobile data collection system to acquire road centerline and roadside features such as curbs and guardrails.Item Development of a Travel-Time Reliability Measurement System(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2018-09) Kwon, Eil; Park, ChongmyungThis study has developed a computerized Travel-Time Reliability Measurement System (TTRMS), which can automate the time-consuming process of gathering and managing data from multiple sources and calculating various types of reliability measures under user-specified conditions for given corridors. The TTRMS adopts a server and client structure, where the main database and computational engines reside in the server, while the user- clients are designed for entering the data and generating the output files. In particular, most of the external data, such as traffic and weather datasets, can be remotely downloaded following predefined time schedules. Further, the travel-time calculation process developed in this study can explicitly reflect various lane-configurations at work zones for correctly calculating travel times of the routes with work zones. The map-based user interfaces provide users with a flexible environment, where the route selection and specification of operating conditions for reliability estimation can be efficiently performed. The integrated TTRMS was tested in the Twin Cities’ metro freeway network by estimating the reliability measures of selected corridors with real data for a two-year period, 2012-13. The test results indicate that the TTRMS can substantially reduce the time and effort in estimating various types of reliability measures under different operating conditions for predefined corridors.Item Divergence of potential state-level performance measures to assess transportation and land use coordination(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2011) Miller, John; Evans, LindaAlthough performance measures encourage agreement in other disciplines, measures for state transportation and land use may engender disagreement among stakeholders. A literature review and a survey of 25 states and three metropolitan planning organizations identified 41 such measures. No single measure best quantifies effective coordination because this coordination supports potentially conflicting goals, such as better access management and increased local autonomy. Further, when measures are computed under four benevolent scenarios that each generate the support of some stakeholders—reduced transit costs, reduced congestion, increased local autonomy, and increased compact development—some performance measures indicate improvement and others do not.Item Estimation of Winter Snow Operation Performance Measures with Traffic-Flow Data, Phase 2(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2015-08) Kwon, Eil; Park, Chongmyung; Hong, Seongah; Jeon, SoobinAn automatic process is developed to determine the normal condition regain time (NCRT) using the traffic flow data for a given snow event. To reflect the different traffic flow behavior during day and night time periods, two types of the normal conditions are defined for each detector station. The normal condition for day time is defined with the average speed-density patterns under dry weather conditions, while the time-dependent average speed patterns are used for representing night time periods. In particular, the speed-density functions for the speed recovery and reduction periods were calibrated separately for a given location to address the well-known traffic hysteresis phenomenon. The resulting NCRT estimation process determines the NCRT as the time when the speed level on a given snow day recovers to the target level of the normal recovery speed at the corresponding density for the day time periods. The sample application results with the snow routes in Twin Cities, Minnesota, show the promising possibilities for the estimated NCRT values to be used as the reliable operational measures, which could address the subjectivity and inconsistency issues associated with the current bare-lane regain times determined through visual inspections.Item Measure of Truck Delay and Reliability at the Corridor Level(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2018-04) Liao, Chen-FuFreight transportation provides a significant contribution to our nation’s economy. A reliable and accessible freight network enables business in the Twin Cities to be more competitive in the Upper Midwest region. Accurate and reliable freight data on freight activity is essential for freight planning, forecasting and decision making on infrastructure investment. A report entitled “Twin Cities Metropolitan Region Freight Study” published by MnDOT and the Metropolitan Council in 2013, suggested a need to understand where and when trucks are most affected by congestion. A framework for truck data collection and analysis was recommended to better understand the relationships between truck traffic and congestion in rush hours. Building upon our previous study to measure freight mobility and reliability along 38 key freight corridors in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA), this study leveraged our previous effort to implement the performance measures using the National Performance Measurement Research Dataset (NPMRDS) from the USDOT. The researcher team first worked with stakeholders to prioritize a list of key freight corridors with recurring congestion in peak periods in the TCMA. We used 24 months of NPMRDS data to measure travel time reliability and estimate truck delay at the corridor level and to identify system impediments during the peak hours. The objective is to use performance measures for assessing impact of truck congestions and identifying operational bottlenecks or physical constraints. Trucking activity nearby a congested area is examined to analyze traffic pattern and investigate possible causes of recurring congestions.Item Measuring transportation at a human scale: An intercept survey approach to capture pedestrian activity(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2013) Schneider, Robert JamesPedestrian travel data are critical for measuring and analyzing sustainable transportation systems. However, traditional household travel surveys and analysis methods often ignore secondary modes, such as walking from a street parking space to a store entrance or walking from a bus stop to home. New data collection and analysis techniques are needed, especially in areas where walking is common. This paper describes an intercept survey methodology used to measure retail pharmacy customer travel to, from, and within 20 shopping districts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Of the 1003 respondents, 959 (96 percent) reported all modes of travel used from leaving home until returning home, including secondary modes. Walking was the primary travel mode on 21 percent of respondent tours, but an analysis of secondary modes found that 52 percent of tours included some walking. Pedestrian travel was particularly common within shopping districts, accounting for 65 percent of all trips within 804 meters (0.5 miles) of survey stores. Detailed walking path data from the survey showed that respondents in denser, more mixed-use shopping districts tended to walk along the main commercial street as well as other streets connecting to the core shopping area, while respondent pedestrian movements in automobile-oriented shopping districts tended to be contained within specific shopping complexes.Item Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program Evaluation Study, Phase 2(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2011-05) Götschi, Thomas; Krizek, Kevin J.; McGinnis, Laurie; Lucke, Jan; Barbeau, JoeThe Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP) is a congressionally mandated program (SAFETEA-LU Section 1807) that, since 2006, has provided roughly $25 million each to four communities—Columbia, Missouri; Marin County, California; Minneapolis area, Minnesota; Sheboygan County, Wisconsin—to spur levels of walking and cycling via a variety of planning measures. The University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies is leading the community-wide population surveys for the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP), specifically in phase 2, to measure changes in levels of walking and bicycling as a result of the enhanced conditions for walking and bicycling. To evaluate impacts of the program, two community-wide surveys were conducted before (phase 1: 2006) and after (phase 2: 2010) the pilot program. This report describes the evaluation efforts based on community-wide population surveys. In contrast to project-specific evaluations, community-wide surveys serve the purpose of representatively assessing community-wide levels of nonmotorized travel behavior, which serve as the foundation for subsequent benefit calculations. The survey in phase 1 consisted of a short mail-out questionnaire and a computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) among respondents to the short questionnaire. In phase 2 the short questionnaire was integrated in the CATI. The final sample in phase 1 consisted of 1279 complete records and in phase 2 of 1807 complete records. Statistical analysis focused on evaluating differences between phase 1 and phase 2 in the core variables on nonmotorized travel behavior. The detailed analysis did not reveal any consistent or statistically significant differences between phases 1 and 2. It is important to point out that the inability to detect significant patterns of change is not synonymous to no change occurring. The report discusses some of the factors that make this type of research challenging.Item Performance measures for public transport accessibility: Learning from international practice(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2017) Curtis, Carey; Scheurer, JanThere is a growing recognition by city policymakers that urban public transport systems can be developed in such a way that travelers can be offered an alternative to car-based travel. How to evolve the public transport system for this purpose is a significant challenge and raises questions of accessibility and quality largely absent from current planning evaluation. This paper explores the use of accessibility performance measures, both to assess the extent of current public transport accessibility and as a potential metric for future planning and investment. The Spatial Network Analysis for Multimodal Urban Transport Systems (SNAMUTS) tool is employed for analysis of accessibility. A sample of 21 international cities is assessed, representing a range of transport and land-use policy contexts from best to ordinary practice, including those held up as exemplars in public transport infrastructure, service planning, and delivery in Europe and North America. The findings show that the incidence of successful metropolitan public transport systems, as measured by patronage, can be linked to accessibility performance measures of network and service configurations.Item Rapid dynamic assessment of expertise: A comparison of performance and mental efficiency measures in accordance with cognitive load theory.(2007-11) Johnson, David LloydThe purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of performance measures for instructional adaptation were more effective and efficient than the use of mental efficiency measures. Fifty-three undergraduate accounting students were randomly assigned to a performance group, a mental efficiency group, and a non-adapted control group. Participants were administered an initial diagnostic test, were placed in a training session about accounting cost-volume-profit analysis, and were administered a final diagnostic test, similar to the initial diagnostic test, and a mental effort rating of the training session. Performance group participants were placed in the training session and allowed to skip certain training session stages based on the results of rapid verification tests administered during the initial diagnostic test. Mental efficiency group participants were placed in the training session and allowed to skip certain training session stages based on the results of rapid verification tests and mental effort ratings administered during the initial diagnostic test. The non-adapted control group participants were placed in the training session at the beginning and did not skip any stages. The training session consisted of four difficulty levels, each with five stages. At each stage a faded worked example and a faded completion problem were provided and a rapid verification test and a mental effort rating were administered. Performance group participants advanced to the next stage or repeated the current stage based on the results of the rapid verification test. Mental efficiency group participants advanced to the next stage or repeated the stage based on the results of the rapid verification test and mental effort ratings. The non-adapted control group did not repeat any training session stages. The study produced no significant differences between any treatment groups for instructional time, final diagnostic test score, mental effort rating of the training session, or instructional efficiency (final diagnostic test score divided by mental effort rating of the training session). The author speculated that the non-significant results of the study were attributable to either an insufficient training session length or to the use of faded completion problems rather than conventional problems.Item Research Implementation of the SMART SIGNAL System on Trunk Highway (TH) 13(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2013-02) Liu, Henry X.; Zheng, Jianfeng; Hu, Heng; Sun, JieIn our previous research, the SMART-SIGNAL (Systematic Monitoring of Arterial Road Traffic and Signals) system that can collect event-based traffic data and generate comprehensive performance measures has been successfully developed by the University of Minnesota. In this research, a new set of interfaces are developed for SMART-SIGNAL system including new prototypes of data collection unit (DCU) and refined web-based user interface. To collect high resolution event-based traffic data including both vehicle detector actuation event and signal phase change event, two types of DCUs are designed, the TS-1 DCU and TS-2 DCU for corresponding traffic signal cabinet. TS-1 DCU connects with TS-1 cabinet using pin to pin interface, and the TS-2 DCU interfaces directly with SDLC bus within TS-2 cabinet. The DCUs uses high performance microcontroller modules, and are compact and easy to install. Both DCUs are designed to be vender independent add-on module for traffic cabinet, and can be used as flexible solution to enhance data collection by agencies. The refined web-based user interface features various performance measures to public users, such as Level of Service (LOS), queue length, travel time and intersection delays. The new set of interfaces have been deployed with the SMART-SIGNAL system at 13 intersections along Trunk Highway (TH) 13 in Burnsville, MN.Item Using Archived Truck GPS Data for Freight Performance Analysis on I-94/I-90 from the Twin Cities to Chicago(University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies, 2009-11) Liao, Chen-FuInterstate 94 is a key freight corridor for goods transportation between Minneapolis and Chicago. This project proposes to utilize the FPM data and information from ATRI to study the I-94/I-90 freight corridor. Freight performance will be evaluated and analyzed to compare truck travel time with respect to duration, reliability, and seasonal variation. This data analysis process can be used for freight transportation planning and decision-making and potentially will be scalable for nationwide deployment and implementation on the country’s significant freight corridors.Item Using Truck GPS Data for Freight Performance Analysis in the Twin Cities Metro Area(Minnesota Department of Transportation Research Services & Library, 2014-03) Chen-Fu, LiaoBuilding on our previous efforts to study freight mobility and reliability, a GPS-based data analysis methodology was developed to study the freight performance of heavy commercial trucks along 38 key freight corridors in the Twin Cities metropolitan area (TCMA). One year of truck GPS data collected in 2012 was obtained from American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) to study freight mobility and reliability. Several performance measures, such as truck mobility, delay, and reliability index, were computed and analyzed by route, roadway segment, and time of day. For data quality and reliability verification, average truck speed and hourly volume percentage computed from the truck GPS data were validated with weigh-in-motion (WIM) and automatic traffic recorders (ATR) data at selected locations. The GPS based freight analysis methodology offers potential opportunities for freight planners and managers to generate reliable measures in a timely manner. The resulting performance measures indicate that these measures derived from truck GPS data can be used to support the USDOT performance measure initiative and support regional surface freight planner in identifying freight bottlenecks, infrastructure improvement needs, and operational strategies to promote efficient freight movement. FHWA recently announced the National Performance Measurement Research Data Set (NPMRDS) to support its Freight Performance Measurement (FPM). The NPMRDS includes probe vehicle based travel time data in every 5-minute interval. This report also explored the feasibility of using one month of NPMRDS data in Minnesota to compute freight mobility and speed variations along the National Highway System (NHS) during AM and PM peak periods.Item Weigh-in-Motion Sensor and Controller Operation and Performance Comparison(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2018-01) Gupta, Diwakar; Tang, Xiaoxu; Yuan, LuThis research project utilized statistical inference and comparison techniques to compare the performance of different Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) sensors. First, we analyzed test-vehicle data to perform an accuracy check of the results reported by the sensor-vendor Intercomp. The results reported by Intercomp mostly matched with our own analysis, but the data were found to be insufficient to reach any conclusions about the accuracy of the sensor under different temperature and speed conditions. Second, based on the limited data from the Intercomp and IRD sensor systems, we performed tests of self-consistency and comparisons of measurements to inform the selection of a superior system. Intercomp sensor data were found to be not self-consistent but IRD data were. Given the different measurements provided by the two sensors, without additional data, we were not able to reach a conclusion regarding the relative accuracy or the duration of consistent observations before needing recalibration. Initial comparisons indicated potential problems with the Intercomp sensor. We then suggested alternate approaches that MNDOT could use to determine whether recalibration was required. Finally, we analyzed ten-month data from the IRD WIM system and four-month data from the Kistler WIM system to evaluate relative sensor accuracy. While both systems were found to be self-consistent within the data time frame, the Kistler system generated more errors than the IRD system. Conclusions regarding relative accuracy could not be reached without additional data. We identified the sorts of measurements that would need to be monitored for recalibration and the methodology needed for estimating future recalibration time.