Title

Quality of traffic flow on urban arterial streets and its relationship with safety

Authors

Authors

V. V. Dixit; A. Pande; M. Abdel-Aty; A. Das;E. Radwan

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Accid. Anal. Prev.

Keywords

Two-fluid model; Driver behavior; Arterials; Surrogate safety measures; Ergonomics; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Social; Sciences, Interdisciplinary; Transportation

Abstract

The two-fluid model for vehicular traffic flow explains the traffic on arterials as a mix of stopped and running vehicles. It describes the relationship between the vehicles' running speed and the fraction of running vehicles. The two parameters of the model essentially represent 'free flow' travel time and level of interaction among vehicles, and may be used to evaluate urban roadway networks and urban corridors with partially limited access. These parameters are influenced by not only the roadway characteristics but also by behavioral aspects of driver population, e.g., aggressiveness. Two-fluid models are estimated for eight arterial corridors in Orlando, FL for this study. The parameters of the two-fluid model were used to evaluate corridor level operations and the correlations of these parameters' with rates of crashes having different types/severity. Significant correlations were found between two-fluid parameters and rear-end and angle crash rates. Rate of severe crashes was also found to be significantly correlated with the model parameter signifying inter-vehicle interactions. While there is need for further analysis, the findings suggest that the two-fluid model parameters may have potential as surrogate measures for traffic safety on urban arterial streets. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Accident Analysis and Prevention

Volume

43

Issue/Number

5

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

1610

Last Page

1616

WOS Identifier

WOS:000292670500002

ISSN

0001-4575

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