Traffic Safety and Operations in Winter

The long-term objective of this research is to develop weather-responsive traffic management systems. Due to reduced road surface friction and visibility in winter, drivers are reluctant to use maximum acceleration or breaking power to react to traffic events when driving on slippery roads. These particular conditions suggest significant variations in driving behavior and physical characteristics of the road network in winter. A clear understanding of such variations and their influence on traffic flow characteristics are essential for establishing safe and efficient traffic management policies. This research aims to investigate the impacts of winter weather conditions on temporal and spatial distribution of traffic in highways, driver behavior and microscopic traffic flow characteristics (e.g., car-following on highways), and macroscopic traffic flow characteristics (e.g. desired speed on highways). Further, this research project investigates the operational issues and safety risks caused by winter weather conditions and develops proper solutions to minimize these impacts. This research is supported by a NSERC Discovery Grant.