NTL Record

Title Analysis of SHRP2 Data to Understand Normal and Abnormal Driving Behavior in Work Zones
Record ID 68120
Personal Name
Creator
Flannagan, Carol A.; Selpi; Baykas, Pinar Boyraz; Leslie, Andrew; Kovaceva, Jordanka; Thomson, Robert
Personal Name
Contributor
Mohamedshah, Yusuf M.
Corporate Creator United States. Federal Highway Administration
Corporate
Contributor
University of Michigan. Transportation Research Institute; Chalmers University of Technology; Virginia Tech Transportation Institute; Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center
Publisher United States. Federal Highway Administration
Publication Date 20191201
Language English
Abstract This research project used the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS) to improve highway safety by using statistical descriptions of normal driving behavior to identify abnormal driving behaviors in work zones. SHRP2 data used in these analyses included 50 safety-critical events (SCEs) from work zones and 444 baseline events selected on a matched case-control design. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to summarize kinematic data into "normal" and "abnormal" driving. Each second of driving is described by one point in three-dimensional principal component (PC) space; an ellipse containing the bulk of baseline points is considered "normal" driving. Driving segments with out-of-ellipse points have a higher probability of being an SCE. Matched case-control analysis indicates that the specific individual and traffic flow made approximately equal contributions to predicting out-of-ellipse driving. Structural Topics Modeling (STM) was used to analyze complex categorical data obtained from annotated videos. The STM method finds "words" representing categorical data variables that occur together in many events and describes these associations as "topics." STM then associates topics with either baselines or SCEs. The STM produced 10 topics: 3 associated with SCEs, 5 associated with baselines, and 2 that were neutral. Distraction occurs in both baselines and SCEs. Both approaches identify the role of individual drivers in producing situations where SCEs might arise. A countermeasure could use the PC calculation to indicate impending issues or specific drivers who may have higher crash risk, but not to employ significant interventions such as automatically braking a vehicle with out-of-ellipse driving patterns. STM results suggest communication to drivers or placing compliant vehicles in the traffic stream would be effective. Finally, driver distraction in work zones should be discouraged.
Public Note Carol A. Flannagan (ORCID: 0000-0001-8484-4187), Selpi (ORCID: 0000-0003-2800-4479), Pinar Boyraz Baykas (ORCID: 0000-0002-3665-1775), Andrew Leslie (ORCID: 0000-0001-7233-6644), Jordanka Kovaceva (ORCID: 0000-0002-7445-3489), and Robert Thomson (ORCID: 0000-0002-8847-6753). The COR/FHWA POC is Yusuf Mohamedshah (HRDS-20, ORCID: 0000-0003-0105-5559).
Rosap ID dot:48835
Rosap URL https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/48835
TRT Terms Work zones; Work zone safety; Data analysis; Travel behavior
General Subjects Work zones; Crashes; Safety; Statistics; Data analysis; Methodology
Geographical
Coverage
United States
TRIS Online
Accession No
1726018
Contract Number DTFH61-16C-00006
Report Number FHWA-HRT-20-010
Resource type Tech Report
URL https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/68000/68100/68120/FHWA-HRT-20-010.pdf
Format PDF
Database NTL Digital Repository