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Title:

Comparing Winter Maintenance Performance on Expressways

Abstract:

The linked expressways in the Buffalo Metropolitan Area are aintained by two state agencies, namely the New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Thruway Authority. They have differing standards of snow and ice control, which may cause nonuniform travel conditions on the expressway network in winter storm events. Using speed reduction converted from actual travel time as the index of level of service, this paper aims to compare the two agencies' winter maintenance performances on the expressway network in the study area. The traffic data in this analysis were obtained from a traffic surveillance system based on automatic vehicle identification technology, while the meteorological data were provided by weather surveillance radar. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to model speed reduction during snow storms and speed recovery duration after snow storms. Indicator variable multiple regression techniques were applied to identify significant differences in level of service between the two agencies. The results so far indicate that the major discrepancy exists in early stage of snow storm events.

Source(s):

86th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting; State University of New York-Buffalo, University of North Carolina-Charlotte. For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.

Date: 2007

Author:

Sun, Thill

Keywords:


Speed
Snow
Winter storm
Institutional issues
Crashes
Safety
Traffic modeling
Mobility
Precipitation

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