Field Data Acquisition Technologies for Iowa Transportation Agencies, HR-366 August 1994

This report describes the results of the research project investigating the use of advanced field data acquisition technologies for lowa transponation agencies. The objectives of the research project were to (1) research and evaluate current data acquisition technologies for field data collection, manipulation, and reporting; (2) identify the current field data collection approach and the interest level in applying current technologies within Iowa transportation agencies; and (3) summarize findings, prioritize technology needs, and provide recommendations regarding suitable applications for future development. A steering committee consisting oretate, city, and county transportation officials provided guidance during this project. Technologies considered in this study included (1) data storage (bar coding, radio frequency identification, touch buttons, magnetic stripes, and video logging); (2) data recognition (voice recognition and optical character recognition); (3) field referencing systems (global positioning systems [GPS] and geographic information systems [GIs]); (4) data transmission (radio frequency data communications and electronic data interchange); and (5) portable computers (pen-based computers). The literature review revealed that many of these technologies could have useful applications in the transponation industry. A survey was developed to explain current data collection methods and identify the interest in using advanced field data collection technologies. Surveys were sent out to county and city engineers and state representatives responsible for certain programs (e.g., maintenance management and construction management). Results showed that almost all field data are collected using manual approaches and are hand-carried to the office where they are either entered into a computer or manually stored. A lack of standardization was apparent for the type of software applications used by each agency--even the types of forms used to manually collect data differed by agency. Furthermore, interest in using advanced field data collection technologies depended upon the technology, program (e.g.. pavement or sign management), and agency type (e.g., state, city, or county). The state and larger cities and counties seemed to be interested in using several of the technologies, whereas smaller agencies appeared to have very little interest in using advanced techniques to capture data. A more thorough analysis of the survey results is provided in the report. Recommendations are made to enhance the use of advanced field data acquisition technologies in Iowa transportation agencies: (1) Appoint a statewide task group to coordinate the effort to automate field data collection and reporting within the Iowa transportation agencies. Subgroups representing the cities, counties, and state should be formed with oversight provided by the statewide task group. (2) Educate employees so that they become familiar with the various field data acquisition technologies.

Roadway Lighting and Safety: Phase II – Monitoring Quality, Durability and Efficiency, November 2011

This Phase II project follows a previous project titled Strategies to Address Nighttime Crashes at Rural, Unsignalized Intersections. Based on the results of the previous study, the Iowa Highway Research Board (IHRB) indicated interest in pursuing further research to address the quality of lighting, rather than just the presence of light, with respect to safety. The research team supplemented the literature review from the previous study, specifically addressing lighting level in terms of measurement, the relationship between light levels and safety, and lamp durability and efficiency. The Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) teamed with a national research leader in roadway lighting, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) to collect the data. An integral instrument to the data collection efforts was the creation of the Roadway Monitoring System (RMS). The RMS allowed the research team to collect lighting data and approach information for each rural intersection identified in the previous phase. After data cleanup, the final data set contained illuminance data for 101 lighted intersections (of 137 lighted intersections in the first study). Data analysis included a robust statistical analysis based on Bayesian techniques. Average illuminance, average glare, and average uniformity ratio values were used to classify quality of lighting at the intersections.

Roadway Lighting and Safety: Phase II – Monitoring Quality, Durability and Efficiency, November 2011

This Phase II project follows a previous project titled Strategies to Address Nighttime Crashes at Rural, Unsignalized Intersections. Based on the results of the previous study, the Iowa Highway Research Board (IHRB) indicated interest in pursuing further research to address the quality of lighting, rather than just the presence of light, with respect to safety. The research team supplemented the literature review from the previous study, specifically addressing lighting level in terms of measurement, the relationship between light levels and safety, and lamp durability and efficiency. The Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) teamed with a national research leader in roadway lighting, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) to collect the data. An integral instrument to the data collection efforts was the creation of the Roadway Monitoring System (RMS). The RMS allowed the research team to collect lighting data and approach information for each rural intersection identified in the previous phase. After data cleanup, the final data set contained illuminance data for 101 lighted intersections (of 137 lighted intersections in the first study). Data analysis included a robust statistical analysis based on Bayesian techniques. Average illuminance, average glare, and average uniformity ratio values were used to classify quality of lighting at the intersections.

A Statistical Analysis of Iowa Premature Concrete Pavement Deterioration, Supplementary Study, HR-1063, 1997

This supplementary project has been undertaken as an effort to continue work previously completed in the Pooled Fund Study of Premature Concrete Pavement Deterioration. As such, it shares the objective of "Identifying the variables that are present in those pavements exhibiting premature deterioration," by collecting additional data and performing statistical analysis of those data. The approach and philosophy of this work are identical to that followed in the above project, and the Pooled Fund Study Final Report provides a detailed description of this process. This project has involved the collection of data for additional sites in the state of Iowa. These sites have then been added to sites collected in the original study, and statistical analysis has been performed on the entire set. It is hoped that this will have two major effects. First, using data from only one state allows for the analysis of a larger set of independent variables with a greater degree of commonality than was possible in the multi-state study, since the data are not limited by state to state differences in data collection and retention. Second, more data on additional sites will increase the degrees of freedom in the model and hopefully add confidence to the results.

A Smartphone-Based Prototype System for Incident/Work Zone Management Driven by Crowd-Sourced Data, 2015

This project develops a smartphone-based prototype system that supplements the 511 system to improve its dynamic traffic routing service to state highway users under non-recurrent congestion. This system will save considerable time to provide crucial traffic information and en-route assistance to travelers for them to avoid being trapped in traffic congestion due to accidents, work zones, hazards, or special events. It also creates a feedback loop between travelers and responsible agencies that enable the state to effectively collect, fuse, and analyze crowd-sourced data for next-gen transportation planning and management. This project can result in substantial economic savings (e.g. less traffic congestion, reduced fuel wastage and emissions) and safety benefits for the freight industry and society due to better dissemination of real-time traffic information by highway users. Such benefits will increase significantly in future with the expected increase in freight traffic on the network. The proposed system also has the flexibility to be integrated with various transportation management modules to assist state agencies to improve transportation services and daily operations.