MPC Research Reports
Report Details

Title:	Reliability-Based Safety Risk and Cost Production of Large Trucks on Rural Highways
Authors:	Suren Chen and Feng Chen
University:	Colorado State University
Publication Date:	Sep 2011
Report #:	MPC-11-243
Project #:	MPC-324
TRID #:	01360951
Keywords:	crash records, high risk locations, mountain roads, rural highways, speeding, traffic safety, trucks, weather conditions

Abstract

An attempt is made to integrally evaluate the safety of large trucks on mountainous highways. The I-70 corridor in Colorado is chosen to demonstrate the methodology because of its typical mountainous terrain and adverse weather conditions. First, the ten-year historical accident records are analyzed to identify the accident-vulnerable-locations (AVLs) and site-specific critical adverse driving conditions. Second, simulation-based single-vehicle assessment is performed for predicting the large truck accident risks with the combination of given weather, topographical, road, and vehicle information at those AVLs along the whole corridor. A framework of a reliability-based assessment model of vehicle safety under adverse driving conditions is developed. Such a framework is built based on the advanced transient dynamic vehicle simulation models, which can consider the coupling effects between vehicles and adverse driving conditions, such as wind gust, snow-covered or icy road surfaces and/or curving. The single-vehicle safety index is introduced to provide a rational assessment of accident risks by considering uncertainties of critical variables. Finally, GIS maps with topographic conditions embedded are generated. By displaying the data on the GIS-based map, different accident risk indices can easily be displayed and compared on the GIS map.

How to Cite

Chen, Suren, and Feng Chen. Reliability-Based Safety Risk and Cost Production of Large Trucks on Rural Highways, MPC-11-243. North Dakota State University - Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, Fargo: Mountain-Plains Consortium, 2011.