The technological advancements in mobile communications, together with the rising interest in solving urban travel problems using advanced technologies, have created new opportunities for further improving incident detection on urban freeways. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed driver-based incident detection system. A driver-based incident detection system is predicated on the principle that a driver arriving in the vicinity of an incident will report the incident to the responsible highway agency. A Freeway Simulation (FRESIM) program was used to simulate four types of incidents occurring in light, moderate, and congested traffic flow. The proportion of drivers with an in-vehicle communication device and the driver's reporting propensity were introduced as controlled variables. A binomial probability model was applied to determine the probability of an incident being reported by one or more of the arriving drivers.; The performance of the proposed driver-based incident detection system was evaluated using two measures of effectiveness; (1) the probability of incident detection, and (2) time-to-detect. The probability of incident detection was equated to the probability of a driver reporting the incident. The effect of a highway agency policy that requires a certain number of drivers to report an incident before action is taken was evaluated.; The results show that all simulated incident types occurring in light, moderate, or congested traffic were detected quickly with high probability of detection. The results showed that an increase in the number of drivers with an in-vehicle communication device improved detection performance while detection performance deteriorates as driver reporting propensity decreases.; The performance of the proposed driver-based incident detection system was compared to that of the conventional highway-based incident detection system that relies on the California Algorithm, Payne Algorithm 8, or Double Exponential Smoothing Algorithm. The comparison showed that the driver-based detection system detected most incidents in a shorter detection time than any of the three incident detection algorithms.; The research also describes the wireless communication technologies that can support Driver-based Incident Detection System and how the system can be incorporated into the evolving Intelligent Transportation Systems.
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