Effects of Major Transportation Incidents and Disruptive Events

During the last five years, the Northern Virginia transportation system has experienced several major incidents and disruptive events including a Metrorail train collision, an earthquake, and a collapsed crane. The magnitudes and sources of these incidents are different from the more common vehicle collisions. This study will compare and contrast the impacts of the three major events with the more common vehicle collisions in terms of demand changes, network performance, and the applicability of congestion mitigation strategies. The overall goal of this project is to better understand the similarities and differences between extraordinary disruptive events and more common incidents and the traffic mitigation strategies that are effective in these situations. The associated objectives include (1) identifying similarities and difference among the major incidents and major and more common incidents; (2) determining the network performance under major incident and disruptive event conditions; (3) determining the network performance under more common incident conditions; and (4) identifying and evaluating traffic mitigation strategies for applicability to the different event conditions. The study's outcomes will help the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and other departments of transportation plan for unusual events of different types and evaluate the benefits of implementing traffic mitigation strategies in the different scenarios.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $61328.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT12-G-UTC03

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center

  Pennsylvania State University
  201 Transportation Research Building
  University Park, PA  United States  16802-4710

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  University Transportation Centers Program
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Performing Organizations:

  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

  Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
  3500 Transportation Research Plaza
  Blacksburg, VA  United States  24061
• Principal Investigators:

  Murray-Tuite, Pamela

• Start Date: 20120901
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20131231
• Source Data: RiP Project 33632

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Congestion management systems; Earthquakes; Incident management; Service disruption; Traffic mitigation; Transportation planning
• Subject Areas: Design; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01472288
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT12-G-UTC03
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Feb 14 2013 1:00AM