Project. Incident capacity estimation Completed

Principal investigator. Dr. Brian L. Smith, University of Virginia, 804-243-8406, briansmith@virginia.edu 

External contact. Stephany Hanshaw, VDOT, Hampton Roads Smart Traffic Center, Virginia Beach, VA. 757.424.9907 

Project objective. To better understand the capacity reductions that result from incidents. 

Project abstract. The majority of congestion on urban facilities is a result of incidents that temporarily reduce the capacity of roadways. In order to manage incidents, it is essential that traffic operators estimate the remaining capacity once an incident has occurred. There has been little research in this area since a Texas study in the 1960's. The purpose of this effort is to analyze incidents and associated traffic flow to quantify capacity impacts on high-traffic urban freeways. 

Tasks. 1) Collect incident and traffic flow data. 2) Analyze data and "fit" to distributions 3) Interpret results 

Milestones. This project will be completed by June 30, 2002. 

Student involvement. 1 GRA 

Budget.   $140,000

Relation to other research. No immediate relationship. 

Technology transfer. Papers in professional journals. 

Potential benefits. Better understanding of incident duration will substantially improve incident management and traveler information. 

TRB keywords.  Incident management, ITS, forecasting