Impacts of COVID-19 on the Operational Performance of Express Lanes and General-Purpose Lanes.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak brought significant changes in the travel behavior and operational characteristics of transportation systems. Express lanes (ELs) are among the transportation facilities that are affected by this pandemic. These facilities are built adjacent to existing general-purpose lanes (GPLs), providing drivers additional lanes that are dynamically priced in response to changing traffic conditions.

Identifying contributing factors and locations of pedestrian severe crashes using hazard-based duration model.

Pedestrian safety remains a significant concern, with the growing number of severe pedestrian crashes resulting in substantial human and economic costs. Previous research into pedestrian crashes has extensively analyzed the influences of weather, lighting, and pedestrian demographics. However, these studies often overlook the critical spatial variables that contribute to pedestrian crashes.

Seeing through eyes of Drivers: Space consideration in investigating visibility of Vulnerable road users involved in crashes from Driver's perspective.

Vulnerable Road User's (VRUs) invisibility by vehicle drivers hasn't been well explored despite having a substantial influence on crash involvement and resulting severity level. Additionally, obtaining comparison crashes for analysis of the VRU invisibility has been a challenge. For that reason, this study used crashes that occurred between 2017 and 2022 in Ohio to understand VRU invisibility from the driver's perspective.

A comparative study of collision types between automated and conventional vehicles using Bayesian probabilistic inferences.

Introduction: Automated vehicle (AV) technology is a promising technology for improving the efficiency of traffic operations and reducing emissions. This technology has the potential to eliminate human error and significantly improve highway safety. However, little is known about AV safety issues due to limited crash data and relatively fewer AVs on the roadways.

What are the leading causes of fatal and severe injury crashes involving older pedestrian? Evidence from Bayesian network model.

Introduction: Identifying factors contributing to the risk of older pedestrian fatal/severe injuries, along with their possible interdependency, is the first step towards improving safety. Several previous studies focused on identifying the influence of individual factors while ignoring their interdependencies. This study investigated the leading risk factors associated with older pedestrian fatalities/severe injuries by identifying the interdependency relationship among variables.

Exploring pre-crash gate violations behaviors of drivers at highway-rail grade crossings using a mixed multinomial logit model.

The highway-rail grade crossings (HRGCs) across the United States have been experiencing about 2500 crashes each year. Previous studies analyzed crash frequencies and fatalities; however, factors pertaining to drivers' gate violation behaviors are little known. Also, applied methodologies for gate violation behaviors analysis did not consider their heterogeneity across regions.

Prediction of vehicle occupants injury at signalized intersections using real-time traffic and signal data.

Intersections are among the most dangerous roadway facilities due to the existence of complex movements of traffic. Most of the previous intersection safety studies are conducted based on static and highly aggregated data such as average daily traffic and crash frequency. The aggregated data may result in unreliable findings because they are based on averages and might not necessarily represent the actual conditions at the time of the crash.

Likelihood estimation of secondary crashes using Bayesian complementary log-log model.

Secondary crashes (SCs) occur within the spatial and temporal impact range of a primary incident. They are non-recurring events and are major contributors to increased traffic delay, and reduced safety, particularly in urban areas. However, the limited knowledge on the nature of SCs has largely impeded their mitigation strategies.