Poster 20-22

Enhancing and Generating GDOT's MUTCD Curve Sign Placement Design with Curve Finder and Curve Sign Determination

PI: James (Yichang) Tsai

Co-PI(s): 

Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

Though curves represent only 5% of highway miles, they account for 25% of fatal roadway crashes. Thus, the MUTCD requires various warning signs to ensure safety on curves. GDOT?s current MUTCD-compliant curve sign design practice is labor-intensive and time-consuming, especially the determination of detailed curve geometry and the validation of the sign placement which must be done for only one curve at a time. Therefore, there is an urgent need to enhance this practice. The objectives of this project are to enhance the GDOT curve sign design practice by automatically batch processing multiple curves at once to extract sensor data including curve geometry, BBI, speed limit, and GPS location. This information will then be used compute the necessary advisory speed for the curve, generate MUTCD-compliant curve signs in a tabular format, and visualize these signs for streamlined implementation by GDOT. This processing will be done using an application previously developed by Georgia Tech for high friction surface treatment location. This project can save time, money, and effort for GDOT as well as increase confidence in the accuracy of the curve sign placement design on a network level.

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Comments

Submitted by Brennan Roney (not verified) on Tue, 10/19/2021 - 14:36.
How many curves have been evaluated with this technology on this project?  Does it matter if it is a curvy road in the mountains or just a flat road that curves in the flat areas of south Georgia?  When doing these curves, where did your team evaluate curves.  Will the collected data be stored in a GDOT database/platform for review?  Look forward to hearing your comments.

Submitted by Zhongyu Yang, P... (not verified) on Thu, 10/21/2021 - 11:21.
Q: How many curves have been evaluated with this technology on this project?  A: We already worked closely with GDOT Office of Traffic Operation and GDOT District 1 to complete the test and validation on SR 2, SR 11, and SR 17. We are currently in the process of evaluating all sharp curves on state-maintained routes using this technology. In District 1, there are over 3,000 curves. We plan to complete all curve inventory and curve sign designs for the entire 18,000 centerline miles of state-maintained roadway.   Q: Does it matter if it is a curvy road in the mountains or just a flat road that curves in the flat areas of south Georgia?  A: Since we are using centerline shapefiles of state-maintained routes provided by GDOT, and our curve finder is extracting the curve from geometry. Therefore, the exact location of the centerline. Therefore, it (whether or not it is on a mountainous region) does not impact our curve extraction quality as long as the baseline centerline data and GPS data collected by GDOT having good quality.   Q: When doing these curves, where did your team evaluate curves? A: Because the objective of this project is to develop an automated procedure. We used a selected number of routes in District 1 (SR-2, SR-11, SR-17) to develop and evaluate the procedure as a demonstration/proof of concept. We are developing a cost-effective approach to effectively extract curve inventory and design MUTCD-compliance curve signs. Therefore, we compare our outcomes with commonly used commercial product using CARS from RIEKER. It has demonstrated our promising feature. Thus, we have moved forward to technology implementation directly.   Q: Will the collected data be stored in a GDOT database/platform for review? A: All outcomes of the project will be stored in ArcGIS shapefiles and have been delivered to GDOT to support GDOT's 1) MUTCD curve sign design and placement, and 2) sharp curve safety analysis.  This is a high impact research project to implement a technology to refine GDOT's current business operation.

Submitted by Zhongyu Yang, P... (not verified) on Thu, 10/21/2021 - 15:05.
Q: How many curves have been evaluated with this technology on this project?  A: We already worked closely with GDOT Office of Traffic Operation and GDOT District 1 to complete the test and validation on SR 2, SR 11, and SR 17. We are currently in the process of evaluating all sharp curves on state-maintained routes using this technology. In District 1, there are over 3,000 curves. We plan to complete all curve inventory and curve sign designs for the entire 18,000 centerline miles of state-maintained roadway.   Q: Does it matter if it is a curvy road in the mountains or just a flat road that curves in the flat areas of south Georgia?  A: Since we are using centerline shapefiles of state-maintained routes provided by GDOT, and our curve finder is extracting the curve from geometry. Therefore, the exact location of the centerline. Therefore, it (whether or not it is on a mountainous region) does not impact our curve extraction quality as long as the baseline centerline data and GPS data collected by GDOT having good quality.   Q: When doing these curves, where did your team evaluate curves? A: Because the objective of this project is to develop an automated procedure. We used a selected number of routes in District 1 (SR-2, SR-11, SR-17) to develop and evaluate the procedure as a demonstration/proof of concept. We are developing a cost-effective approach to effectively extract curve inventory and design MUTCD-compliance curve signs. Therefore, we compare our outcomes with commonly used commercial product using CARS from RIEKER. It has demonstrated our promising feature. Thus, we have moved forward to technology implementation directly.   Q: Will the collected data be stored in a GDOT database/platform for review? A: All outcomes of the project will be stored in ArcGIS shapefiles and have been delivered to GDOT to support GDOT's 1) MUTCD curve sign design and placement, and 2) sharp curve safety analysis. This is a high-impact research project to implement a technology to refine GDOT's current business operation.

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