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    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
    <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
    <image>
      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
      <url>https://rip.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle-RIP.jpg</url>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Highway Safety Manual Crash Prediction Models of Arterial Weaving Segments</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2712176</link>
      <description><![CDATA[More than half of the roadway deaths and nearly two-thirds of pedestrian fatalities in the United States occur on non-freeway arterials. Arterial sections with weaving maneuvers are complex for all road users to navigate and traverse without incidents or collisions.

The Code of Federal Regulations requires determination of whether the location, configuration, geometric design, and signing related to a proposed change in access may be reasonably expected to serve the anticipated traffic of the Interstate system in a manner that is conducive to safety, durability, and economy of maintenance. For many existing and proposed alternative designs, the safety of the weave is not quantified between ramps. Examples include cloverleaf designs with adjacent intersections and crossing weaves from ramps to downstream left turns. A better understanding of crash outcomes is needed for a variety of rural and urban speeds and contexts.

As part of NCHRP Project 15-66, “Operational Performance and Safety Effects of Arterial Weaving Sections,” crash data and conflict data obtained in the field and a driving simulator were analyzed to assess the safety performance of several types of arterial weaving sections. The results of the safety analysis did not provide a definitive relationship between the length and vehicle maneuvers of arterial weaving sections and crashes or conflicts; however, sufficient information was found to suggest additional research in this area would yield promising results toward developing a methodology for predicting the safety performance of arterial weaving sections suitable for inclusion in the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual (HSM).

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research is to develop a crash prediction methodology, safety performance functions (SPFs), to assess different types of arterial weaving sections, suitable for inclusion in the HSM.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:53:30 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2712176</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Assessing the Impacts of Safety-Focused Design Interventions on Arterial Roadways</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2677552</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Arterial roadways serve as critical connectors in urban transportation networks, yet their design often prioritizes vehicular mobility over safety. Despite the widespread application of safety-focused infrastructure interventions on local and collector streets, similar strategies are rarely implemented on arterials due to concerns over congestion, emergency response, and operational efficiency. However, these design choices have proven to result in unsafe conditions.

This project investigates how infrastructure design interventions can improve safety on arterial roadways while addressing operational and institutional constraints. The research follows a phased approach. First, it examines the historical, regulatory, and policy factors that have limited the adoption of safety-focused interventions on arterials, including the influence of fire codes and emergency response standards. Second, it assesses the real-world impacts of infrastructure changes on speeds, crashes, and emergency response metrics. Finally, it synthesizes findings to develop actionable recommendations and a decision-making framework for arterial design.

By providing an evidence-based understanding of how design choices affect safety, mobility, and community outcomes on arterial corridors, this study aims to inform infrastructure design practices.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 20:07:45 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2677552</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Validation of HSM Crash Prediction Methods for Specific Intersection Types in Oregon</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2593954</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) is the national guidance of quantitative safety analysis used in highway transportation planning, alternatives development, highway design, operations, and maintenance. However, some crash prediction models and crash modification factors in the Highway Safety Manual were developed using data from other states, not Oregon. Therefore, it is necessary to validate these models and crash modification factors for the implementation in Oregon.
Recently the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) project 17-68 “Intersection Crash Prediction Methods for the Highway Safety Manual” has developed crash prediction models of more intersection types for inclusion in the HSM. The types of intersections include all-way stop control, three-leg intersections with signal control on rural highways, intersections on high-speed urban and suburban arterials, five-leg intersections, etc. Currently, there is no guideline for how to use these new crash prediction models particularly in Oregon. It is necessary to validate these models and crash modification factors in Oregon to guide the statewide implementation.
This research proposes to focus on intersections on urban and suburban arterials, which are common intersection types.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2025 12:53:55 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2593954</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Installed Wrong-Way Driving Countermeasures on Florida Freeways and Arterials</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2563982</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of wrong way driving countermeasures currently mandated by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) on freeways and arterials. The study will assess whether the mandated wrong-way driving (WWD) countermeasures have an impact on the number of WWD incidents and WWD crashes occurring on state highway system roadways. The effectiveness of the countermeasures will be measured by the number and extent of WWD incidents, and WWD crashes reduced due to their installation.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2025 09:21:07 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2563982</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Development of an arterial-based pedestrian exposure and crash risk model for North Carolina</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2536233</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Pedestrian safety is a significant concern for transportation planners and safety engineers both within North Carolina and across the country. While a relatively small number of trips are made via walking and pedestrians were involved in less than 1% of crashes in North Carolina, pedestrians represented roughly 15% of traffic fatalities or serious injuries; further, pedestrian fatalities have continued to increase in the state, with a peak total of 265 in 2022. More broadly across the United States, pedestrian fatalities are increasing annually; in fact, annual pedestrian fatalities within the U.S. claimed the lives of more than 7,500 people in 2021, the highest in over forty years. To better identify factors that contribute to pedestrian fatalities/injuries and identify the highest risk locations for these crashes, it is critical to understand which locations have the most pedestrian activity so that the most risk-prone locations can be identified.

As part of research report 2022-057A: Quantification of Systemic Risk Factors for Pedestrian Safety on North Carolina, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) discovered several risk factors that were most associated with serious injuries and fatalities among pedestrians involved in a crash on the roadway. However, these risk factors did not include a critical aspect of pedestrian crash risk – pedestrian activity or exposure – due to a lack of available data. The research collected traffic counts from NCDOT and local governments, but many of these counts reflected sites selected for standard motor vehicle turning counts; further, these sites were not selected to understand the dynamics that influence pedestrian activity, but rather as a secondary component of a more traditional traffic study.

The overall objective of this project is to identify the most critical locations that pedestrian counts are needed to support the estimation of a more reliable pedestrian exposure model for arterials and obtain pedestrian exposure information from these locations. These counts will then be integrated into an updated pedestrian exposure model that will be used to better quantify pedestrian risk on arterials within NCDOT (both individual roadway segments and intersections) to identify the highest risk locations for pedestrian crashes. Both the exposure and risk models will be built using publicly available data on land use, roadway features, speed limits, as well as bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure locations available through the Pedestrian and Bicycle Infrastructure Network (PBIN) dataset. As a part of this project, specific location types that are underrepresented in terms of available pedestrian counts will be identified so that additional pedestrian counts can be performed to supplement the available data and improve model accuracy/reliability. The final risk factors identified through this effort should be applicable to the highly diverse spectrum of environmental contexts and communities that make up North Carolina.

The primary products of this research would be: (1) additional pedestrian exposure counts at critical representative locations along arterials within North Carolina; (2) an updated pedestrian exposure model that can be used to predict the level of pedestrian activity at individual intersections (and applied to adjacent segments) along arterials in North Carolina; and, (3) a suite of models to estimate the level of risk of a pedestrian crash at individual roadway segments and intersections in North Carolina. In addition to
the models themselves, the research team will provide a suite of geographic information system (GIS) map layers that have the pedestrian exposure and risk models implemented directly. Specific sites will be identified as discussed with the NCDOT technical panel; e.g., top 1% or 10% risky sites and top 1% or 10% sites with the highest anticipated pedestrian exposure. In addition, the research team will provide guidance on how these models can be used as a part of systemic pedestrian safety analysis in North Carolina, focusing on the identification and use of pedestrian risk factors along arterials in urban areas. This guidance document will be a standalone document, separate from the final research report. The guidance document will include a summary of the process followed to develop the systemic analysis model and possible opportunities for future analysis model updates. Case studies or example corridor profiles will be used to demonstrate how the models can be applied and what to look for outside of what information the models can provide, such as local land uses, pedestrian generators, and evidence of disadvantaged populations.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 11 Apr 2025 01:43:23 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2536233</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Innovative Signal Timing Design and Operation Strategies to Improve Nighttime Arterial Safety</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2536079</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Nighttime fatalities, injuries, and crashes are overrepresented in Florida. To significantly reduce these incidents, greater efforts must be invested to make nighttime travel safer for all road users. This research will investigate innovative traffic signal timing design and operation strategies and their effectiveness in mitigating nighttime fatalities, serious injuries, and crashes on urban and suburban arterials in Florida.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Apr 2025 12:57:25 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2536079</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Artificial Intelligence (AI) Frameworks for Detecting Roadway Features Along Arterial Roadways from Planimetric Satellites Imagery Data </title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2522024</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Departments of Transportation (DOTs) at the state level play a vital role in collecting and maintaining highway inventory data to support informed decision-making across various operational levels. Traditionally, these efforts have relied on labor-intensive and expensive processes, presenting challenges in updating and expanding inventory coverage. However, advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly in computer vision and deep learning, offer a transformative solution to these limitations.

The overall goal of this proposed research is to develop an AI-driven framework that enables automated extraction of roadway geometric features (i.e., pedestrian crosswalks and turn lanes) from aerial imagery, advancing Ohio Department of Transportation's (ODOT's) efficiency in data collection. The associated objectives include: (1) Collect and pre-process georeferenced aerial images for detecting pedestrian crosswalks and turn lanes, annotating them to train AI algorithms effectively. (2) Design and train a deep learning model to detect specific roadway features from satellite images. (3) Develop a Geographic Information System (GIS) database to organize and store the extracted features for easy accessibility and integration with existing ODOT datasets. (4) Build a flexible framework to support future expansion, enabling the detection of additional roadway features as needed.
           ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Mar 2025 13:41:09 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2522024</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Evaluation of the Deployment of Arterial Service Patrol Program in Central Florida (Part 2)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2448902</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objective of this study is to evaluate the 1-year deployment of the arterial safety patrol program. Insights from this evaluation study will inform the possible extension of the program with modifications. In addition, the evaluation will also provide insights on enhancing the data and methodology used in the previous study for identifying priority locations for service deployment. This project is a continuation of research that began under BED31 TWO 977-16.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 05 Nov 2024 14:44:13 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2448902</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Develop Countermeasures to Lower Operating Speeds and Collisions on Arterial Roadways, and Reduce Vulnerable User Injuries</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2437687</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The research team will investigate the effectiveness of arterial-focused speed management countermeasures for application across Texas. The researchers will quantify the costs and benefits of road and vehicle design, operations, enforcement, and other countermeasure types across a range of settings (for uncontrolled-access arterials under different traffic, road type/context, and land use conditions), resulting in a Texas Arterial Speed Management Toolkit and reports.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Oct 2024 10:21:53 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2437687</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Freeway and Arterial Performance and Safety Analysis with High Resolution Vehicle Trajectory Data</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2431597</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Local traffic agencies have large investments in intelligent transportation system (ITS)
infrastructure including sensors such as cameras, radars, and loop detectors and communication
to gain new insight for better planning, management, and operation of roadways. However, the
ITS infrastructure is generally limited to dense urban areas and requires significant support to
maintain coupled with limited in-house expertise to fully realize the promise of big data.
Further, new high resolution vehicle trajectory data (HRVT) streams have become available to
further complicate analysis and the value proposition of ITS hardware. This project will evaluate
the potential for HRVT to support infrastructure owner operators (IOOs) and practitioners to
more effectively plan, operate, and manage their systems and improve safety outcomes on their
networks. HRVT will be integrated into traditional traffic analyses as well as leading edge deep
learning research. The outcome of this project will be a tool to effectively query, store, process,
and visualize HRVT data for practitioner use.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Sep 2024 17:43:12 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2431597</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Integrated Management and Decision Support of Arterial Street Operations</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2397996</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The goal of this project is to identify arterial traffic management strategies that can be enabled and enhanced by advanced data collection and analytics techniques based on the needs and requirements of transportation agencies]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 Jun 2024 07:38:20 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2397996</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Strategies for Transportation System Management and Operational Enhancement of Arterial Roadways</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2366296</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The overall goal of this research project is to develop guidance materials for characterizing a corridor and its needs for enhancement, describing all arterial transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O) strategies for implementations, and developing performance reporting goals on safety an(d mobility.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 03 Jun 2024 14:40:55 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2366296</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Assessing the Effectiveness of Bicycle Infrastructure Treatments through a Large-Scale Trajectories collected with Drones</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2325391</link>
      <description><![CDATA["Assessing the Effectiveness of Bicycle Infrastructure Treatments through a Large-Scale Trajectories collected with Drones" is a comprehensive study designed to evaluate the safety implications of various bicycle infrastructure treatments, such as bike lanes, protected bike lanes, bike boxes, and two-stage turn queue boxes in urban environments. Recognizing the limitations of current research methods that either focus on single intersections or rely on simulations and underreported crash data, this project proposes a novel approach using drones to collect extensive trajectories of all road users in signalized urban arterials. The two-fold objective of the study is to implement a large-scale experiment with drones to gather detailed modal trajectories and to utilize these data to develop surrogate safety measures for evaluating the impact of bicycle infrastructure treatments on bicyclist and motorist safety.

The research plan is structured around two primary questions: identifying effective surrogate safety metrics for bicycle treatments along arterials and understanding the influence of the continuity and density of bicycle infrastructure on road user behavior. The study will utilize drones to monitor areas with various bicycle infrastructure treatments, capturing the behavior of motorists and vulnerable road users, especially bicyclists. The drone flights, conducted by MobiLysis, will record traffic during peak periods on selected signalized arterials with diverse socioeconomic characteristics and bicycle demand. Trajectories extracted from drone footage will be analyzed to develop surrogate safety measures, correlating them with factors such as infrastructure type, connectivity, density, and road geometry.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2024 10:43:37 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2325391</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Design and evaluation of an Arterial-Friendly Local Ramp Metering System</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2250737</link>
      <description><![CDATA[To address the widespread concern of an on-ramp control’s negative impacts (e.g., ramp queue spillover) on a neighboring arterial’s traffic conditions, the research team, with the support of Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration's (MDOT SHA’s) staff/engineers, has recently developed an innovative Arterial-Friendly Ramp (AF-Ramp) metering system, which aims to maximize the total benefits of the freeway and arterial users with both an optimized ramp metering rate and a coordinated signal plan for intersections within the ramp-impact area. Different from current ramp-metering models in the literature and in practice, the proposed AF-Ramp system includes the target freeway segment, its on-ramp, and neighboring intersections in one integrated control environment, and converts them from competing for available roadway capacity to a coordinated mode that maximizes their total benefits. To ensure the AF-Ramp system’s effectiveness in addressing complex, local-specific traffic patterns, it is essential that a rigorous and extensive field evaluation be conducted with respect to the system’s key model parameters and embedded assumptions. The coordinated relationship between the system’s three primary models, from estimating the freeway’s remaining capacity for ramp flows to the optimization of ramp metering rate and intersection signal plans, can also be assessed with the field data. 
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 21 Sep 2023 14:59:55 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2250737</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>NMDOT Pedestrian Safety on Arterials</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2231970</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objective of this research is to identify and evaluate strategies for improving pedestrian safety on arterial roadways. This will be accomplished through analyses of countermeasures that were installed on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Countermeasures will include a BRT system, road diet, and HAWK signals. The research team will analyze changes in crash frequency and crash rates for the BRT and HAWK signals, changes in vehicle speeds for the BRT and road diet, changes in pedestrian behavior for the HAWK signals, and changes to vehicle exposure for the BRT and road diet. 

The team will consider treatments in different land use and road design contexts so that the findings may be extrapolated to other arterials in other cities across the state, region, and country. The deliverable from this project will be a final report detailing traffic safety best practices for pedestrians and other road users relative to specific countermeasures, land use configurations, and roadway design configurations. The potential implementation of this research is high as this project has developed results that can be used immediately by departments of transportation (DOTs) to avoid pedestrian and other motor vehicle collisions. The exploration of solutions to the recent increase in pedestrian injuries and fatalities provides new knowledge to the field of transportation.

This project is a collaborative project with the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) because they are providing cost share for the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety (CPBS). This NMDOT project will be a Year 2 extension of a project for which the team has already completed Year 1 and will consist of an analysis of APD data regarding alcohol and drug arrests, an analysis of police reports for speeding and turning-related crashes, changes to street lighting along critical corridors and how those changes related to safety outcomes, research into APD's definition of 'Failed to Yield Right of Way', exploration of bi-directional BRT lanes, and investigating crashes involving parked vehicles. Findings will then be applied to state roads across New Mexico and recommendations will be made for project prioritization and design interventions.

The expected deliverables are a final report and a policy brief (that will allow for easy interpretation of results by cities, regions, and states). The team will pare the final report into at least three academic papers. The final report, policy brief, and any published papers will be published on the CPBS website and on TRID. The team will also disseminate findings through the social media accounts of CPBS and the PIs. The team will provide the deliverables to NMDOT so they can also share widely.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 20 Aug 2023 15:28:51 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2231970</guid>
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