TITLE:
Development of Risk Index of Uninterrupted Traffic Flow According to the Occurrence of Fog
AUTHORS:
Soullam Kim, Sung Han Lim
KEYWORDS:
Fog, Visibility, Traffic Flow, Speed-Flow Relationship, Risk Index
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Engineering and Technology,
Vol.6 No.3,
June
11,
2018
ABSTRACT: The driver’s visibility is degraded when weather conditions deteriorate, which affects the traffic flow and induces traffic congestion or accidents. In particular, traffic accidents can beled to chain reaction collisions, with high rate of fatality, when fog occurs in contrast to other weather factors that may restrict visibility. For the development of a traffic risk index, a deviation of the vehicle’s speed was set for the traffic risk index by referring to previous study results. In addition, factors that affected the deviation in a vehicle’s speed were selected as independent variables based on the traffic flow analysis during occurrences of fog. The visible distance, traffic volume, and speed were selected as the independent variables to estimate the optimal parameters in the regression model. The traffic risk index model during occurrences of fog proposed in this study is an exponential model, with the visible distance and the traffic volume defined as independent variables. According to the study model, traffic risk increased as the visible distance decreased and the traffic volume was lower. Thus, the visible distance that can affect traffic flow during occurrences of fog can be determined in the future based on the results of this study. The study results will be expected to contribute to not only traffic safety improvements, but also the facilitation of traffic flow as drivers and traffic operation managers intuitively recognize the level of risk.