Fang Publishes Journal Article on Traffic Modeling of Various Types of Interchanges

Clara Fang, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, CETA, as the leading author, has recently published a research paper on the validation and modeling of interchange traffic operations in the Journal of Transportation Research Record published by the National Academies.
Co-authors of the paper are Lily Elefteriadou at University of Florida and Aaron Elias at Kittelson & Associates.  The paper was based on a two-year project effort funded by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). The study has examined and collected data on eight interchange locations nationwide; one Parclo interchange is located at Route 10 and Interstate 84 in the Hartford area and seven others were chosen from Arizona, Florida and Massachusetts (see Figure).
Data were collected at each site for several hours using up to eight video cameras mounted on existing utility poles and nearby buildings.  The geometric characteristics of each site were collected using a combination of aerial photographs and field measurements. The research team also solicited the assistance of various transportation agencies such as the Department of Transportation for identifying data sources.  Finally a comprehensive database representing various types of interchanges with different geometric and traffic characteristics were utilized to develop new lane utilization, queue length and capacity estimation models.