Evaluation of the effectiveness of ATM messages used during incidents : final report.

Final reportPDFTech ReportMN/RC 2016-04CTS # 2014029(c) 99008 (wo) 98Traffic signalsTraffic accidentsTraffic signal controllersUnited StatesMinnesotaMinnesota. Dept. of Transportation. Research Services & LibraryRindels, MaxZitzow, StephenHourdos, JohnMinnesota Traffic ObservatoryUniversity of Minnesota. Dept. of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-EngineeringMinnesota. Dept. of Transportation. Research Services & LibraryUS Transportation CollectionThis project investigated the use of Intelligent Lane Control Signs based Active Traffic Management forIncident Management on a heavily traveled urban freeway. The subject of the research was the ILCSsystem on I-94 westbound in downtown Minneapolis. This location was selected because of thefrequency of capacity reducing incidents occurring in this freeway segment. This research aimed toevaluate and quantify the effect the system has on drivers, specifically on inducing/directing a desirablelane selection behavior. The strength of various uses of the tool in managing traffic during incidents isexplored instead of a general level of success in improving traffic. To achieve this goal, the centerpiece ofthis research was the comparison and modeling of the lane change rates under different strategies. Thiswas a difficult task because all lane changes in the target freeway section had to be detected andgeolocated. The research followed two main thrusts. The first was a detailed analysis of 28 incidentevents selected among approximately 481 events on record between 2012 and 2013. The second thrustwas a statistical analysis testing a number of hypotheses prompted by questions proposed by the projectTechnical Advisory Panel. In general, it can be concluded that the use of ILCS for incident managementhas a significant effect on driver behavior and specifically in prompting proper lane selection undercapacity reducing incidents