Evaluating comprehension of temporary traffic control

Greenwood, Aaron T.

Title:

Evaluating comprehension of temporary traffic control

dc.contributor.advisor	Hunter, Michael P.
dc.contributor.author	Greenwood, Aaron T.
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Rodgers, Michael O.
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Watkins, Kari E.
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Guensler, Randall L.
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Corso, Gregory M.
dc.contributor.department	Civil and Environmental Engineering
dc.date.accessioned	2016-01-07T17:38:45Z
dc.date.available	2016-01-07T17:38:45Z
dc.date.created	2015-12
dc.date.issued	2015-11-18
dc.date.submitted	December 2015
dc.date.updated	2016-01-07T17:38:45Z
dc.description.abstract	There are over 5 million reported motor vehicle collisions annually in the United States, and while crash rates and fatality rates have declined in the past decades, rates in work zones are disproportionately high. There are strict standards for evaluating the crashworthiness of temporary traffic control devices, but not for evaluating drivers’ comprehension of existing or novel device deployments. This dissertation presents a series of three experiments evaluating driver comprehension for existing and novel traffic control devices conducted in a work zone setting. This evaluation is further expanded by decomposing the task of comprehending traffic control into the three subtasks of detection, localization, and identification. Methods are proposed for conducting a computer-based experiment with still image stimuli to measure participant performance at each of these subtasks. Next, procedures for categorizing localization responses and accounting for variation in participants physical responses are explored. Lastly, an application of Item Response Theory toward the evaluation and comparison of participant comprehension is demonstrated. It is hoped that these methods and procedures can be used by future researchers and experimenters to compare novel temporary traffic control devices and systems to inform future design.
dc.description.degree	Ph.D.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1853/54447
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Georgia Institute of Technology
dc.subject	Temporary traffic control
dc.subject	Work zones
dc.subject	Human factors
dc.title	Evaluating comprehension of temporary traffic control
dc.type	Text
dc.type.genre	Dissertation
dspace.entity.type	Publication
local.contributor.advisor	Hunter, Michael P.
local.contributor.corporatename	School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename	College of Engineering
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication	9db01061-14c2-4451-8340-e8230033f407
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	88639fad-d3ae-4867-9e7a-7c9e6d2ecc7c
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
thesis.degree.level	Doctoral