title: A generic approach for examining the effectiveness of traffic control devices in school zones.
abstract: The effectiveness and performance of traffic control devices in school zones have been impacted significantly by many factors, such as driver behavioral attributes, roadway geometric features, environmental characteristics, weather and visibility conditions, region-wide traffic regulations and policies, control modes, etc. When deploying traffic control devices in school zones, efforts are needed to clarify: (1) whether traffic control device installation is warranted; and (2) whether other device effectively complements this traffic control device and strengthens its effectiveness. In this study, a generic approach is developed to examine and evaluate the effectiveness of various traffic control devices deployed in school zones through driving simulator-based experiments. A Traffic Control Device Selection Model (TCDSM) is developed and two representative school zones are selected as the testbed in Beijing for driving simulation implementation to enhance its applicability. Statistical analyses are conducted to extract the knowledge from test data recorded by a driving simulator. Multiple measures of effectiveness (MOEs) are developed and adopted including average speed, relative speed difference, and standard deviation of acceleration for traffic control device performance quantification. The experimental tests and analysis results reveal that the appropriateness of the installation of certain traffic control devices can be statistically verified by TCDSM. The proposed approach provides a generic framework to assess traffic control device performance in school zones including experiment design, statistical formulation, data analysis, simulation model implementation, data interpretation, and recommendation development.
authors.affiliation: College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China. Electronic address: xiaohuazhao618@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China. Electronic address: happyeveryday0903@126.com.
authors.forename: Jiahui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China. Electronic address: dinghan86@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, MSC01 1070, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. Electronic address: guohui@unm.edu.
authors.forename: Guohui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China. Electronic address: jrong@bjut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rong
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D000068476:Beijing; D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012574:Schools; D014887:Weather; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Driving simulator experiment; Evaluation model; School zone; Traffic control devices