David Veneziano

Evaluating Snow and Ice Control Chemicals for Environmentally Sustainable Highway Maintenance Operations

AbstractThe use of chemicals and abrasives for highway winter maintenance operations is an essential strategy for ensuring a reasonably high level of service, yet the performance of such materials has to be balanced with their potential negative impacts on motor vehicles, transportation infrastructure, and the natural environment. In this context, this work presents a comprehensive and quantitative evaluation of snow and ice control chemicals currently used by various Idaho Transportation Department districts for highway maintenance operations, including rock salts (mainly solid sodium chloride), IceSlicer products (solid sodium chloride with trace amounts of other chlorides), and salt brines. The analysis has been enabled by the utilization of existing lab and field test data along with reasonable assumptions, in the effort to identify environmentally sustainable materials for winter highway operations. Despite its caveats, this case study is the first attempt to incorporate the most up-to-date informati...

Evaluation of Iowa's graduated driver's licensing program

The effectiveness of Iowas graduated drivers licensing (GDL) program was evaluated for a 4-year period before and after implementation in 1999. Since some changes had occurred in the crash reporting format, changes in crash rates for younger drivers were compared to those for 35-44-year-old drivers (middle-age group of drivers) who were used as a control group. After implementation of GDL, the 14-, 16- and 17-year-old age groups experienced a greater decrease in crash rate than the middle-age control group while 15-year-old experienced a smaller decrease. This suggests that the crash rate for 15-year-old drivers may actually have increased when downward trends were adjusted for. Iowas GDL program allows holders of the instruction permit to travel unaccompanied to and from school and school-endorsed activities after obtaining a minor school license. Fifteen-year-old with minor school licenses account for up to 26.7% of 15-year-old license holders yet represent up to 74.8% of 15-year-old drivers involved in crashes (depending on the year) from 1998 to 2004. As a result, 15-year-old drivers with minor school licenses are involved in 7.2-8.9 times more crashes, are 7.7 times more likely to have one or more sanctions, and are 4.8 times more likely to receive one or more moving convictions than their peers with a regular instruction permit. This help may explain why 15-year-old drivers did not seem to benefit from implementation of the GDL program in Iowa.

Estimating Statewide Benefits of Winter Maintenance Operations

Winter highway maintenance activities offer direct and indirect benefits to the public. However, the cost of such activities is such a major outlay that it demands close scrutiny. There is a need to understand better and quantitatively estimate the benefits of winter road maintenance. Therefore, the work discussed in this paper was undertaken to quantitatively assess the benefits of winter highway operations at the state level. Methodologies were developed to estimate the major benefits of winter maintenance, including safety improvements, travel time savings, and fuel savings. A Minnesota case was used to demonstrate the methodologies and quantify those benefits. Results of the case study showed the benefits of winter highway maintenance by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to be

Costs and Benefits of Tools to Maintain Winter Roads: A Renewed Perspective Based on Recent Research

227 million per winter season, with

Evaluation of Winter Maintenance Chemicals and Crashes with an Artificial Neural Network

168 million of safety benefits,

Precipitation Variation and the Identification of High-Risk Wet Accident Locations in California

11 million of mobility benefits, and

Traffic Management of Special Events in Small Communities

48 million of fuel savings. The benefit–cost ratio of winter highway operations in Minnesota was 6.2, in which material costs were taken into account.

Integration of light detection and ranging technology with photogrammetry in highway location and design

Some of the most useful data available to winter road maintenance managers and others charged with decision making are the costs, benefits, and effectiveness associated with winter maintenance of practices, equipment, and operations. However, significant effort may be required to track down this information, and access to published reports and papers is not guaranteed. This paper presents recent research results to assist practitioners in understanding the current state of the practice related to specific items. The information presented here focuses on the top 10 winter maintenance practices, equipment, and procedures as identified by practitioners, including anti-icing, deicing, front and underbody blades, automatic vehicle location and Global Positioning System technologies, pavement temperature sensors, road weather information system (RWIS), maintenance decision support system, carbide blades, air temperature sensors, and zero velocity spreaders. A review of the literature pertaining to these items indicated that, depending on the item of interest, significant data gaps might exist. This was less true for items such as RWIS and more true of items such as temperature sensors and material placement systems. Overall, quantified costs and benefits related to many items are still needed. In addition, further investigation is necessary to quantify the dollar values of costs and benefits associated with many items considered intangible at present. The determination of the values of such costs and benefits would assist in the conduct of cost–benefit studies and decision making.

Safety impact of Gateway Monuments.

The objective of this study was to investigate and evaluate the effects of winter maintenance chemicals on road safety. To this end, a winter chemical usage model was developed. A methodology combining artificial neural network (ANN) methods and sensitivity analysis is presented. In this method, the ANN system was used to establish the relationship between road safety and associated factors, and sensitivity analysis was used to identify significant variables and quantify their effects. The chemical usage model and the ANN system were then applied to case studies in Idaho. The results from the case study showed that the use of winter maintenance chemicals played an important role in road safety. Furthermore, benefit–cost analysis of the case studies indicated that the use of winter maintenance chemicals produced more benefits than costs.

Safety Effects of Icy-Curve Warning Systems

To improve safety continually along Californias roadways, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) developed a list of high-collision concentration locations that required further evaluation and treatment. One version of this list, Wet Table C, analyzes only wet accidents (those during or following precipitation). In developing Wet Table C, wet percent factors–-which quantify the proportion of time per year during which pavement is damp enough to cause traffic accidents (measured on an hourly basis)–-are employed. These factors were originally developed at the county level (i.e., one factor per county). A recent updating of factors allowed for their development at a finer spatial level (quarter-mile segments of roadway). This research examined whether such finer-resolution factors produced different results when incorporated into the Caltrans Wet Table C process. Results of McNemar tests indicated that there was no statistical difference between lists produced using a singular wet percent factor and ones produced using finer resolution factors.