<p>Road networks are significantly affected by traffic signal operations, which contribute from 5% to 10% of all traffic delay in the United States. It is therefore important for agencies to systematically monitor signal performance to identify locations where operations do not function as desired and where mobility could be improved.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Currently, most signal performance evaluations are derived from infrastructure-based Automated Traffic Signal Performance Measures (ATSPMs). These performance measures rely on high-resolution detector and phase information that is collected at 10 Hz and reported via TCP/IP connections. Even though ATSPMs have proven to be a valid approach to estimate signal performance, significant initial capital investment required for infrastructure deployment can represent an obstacle for agencies attempting to scale these techniques. Further, fixed vehicle detection zones can create challenges in the accuracy and extent of the calculated performance measures.</p> <p><br></p> <p>High-resolution connected vehicle (CV) trajectory data has recently become commercially available. With over 500 billion vehicle position records generated each month in the United States, this data set provides unique opportunities to derive accurate signal performance measures without the need for infrastructure upgrades. This dissertation provides a comprehensive suite of CV-based techniques to generate actionable and scalable traffic signal performance measures.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Turning movements of vehicles at intersections are automatically identified from attributes included in the commercial CV data set to facilitate movement-level analyses. Then, a trajectory-based visualization from which relevant performance measures can be extracted is presented. Subsequently, methodologies to identify signal retiming opportunities are discussed. An approach to evaluate closely-coupled intersections, which is particularly challenging with detector-based techniques, is then presented. Finally, a data-driven methodology to enhance the scalability of trajectory-based traffic signal performance estimations by automatically mapping relevant intersection geometry components is provided.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The trajectory data processing procedures provided in this dissertation can aid agencies make data-driven decisions on resource allocation and signal system modifications. The presented techniques are transferable to any location where CV data is available, and the scope of analysis can be easily varied from the movement to intersection, corridor, region, and state level.</p>

<p>  </p> <p>Most new vehicles manufactured in the last two years are connected vehicles (CV) that transmit back to the original equipment manufacturer at near real-time fidelity. These CVs generate billions of data points on an hourly basis, which can provide valuable data to agencies to improve the overall mobility experience for users. However, with this growing scale of CV big data, stakeholders need efficient and scalable methodologies that allow agencies to draw actionable insights from this large-scale data for daily operational use. This dissertation presents a suite of applications, illustrated through case studies, that use CV data for assessing and managing mobility and safety on surface transportation systems.</p> <p>A systematic review of construction zone CV data and crashes on Indiana’s interstates for the calendar year 2019, found a strong correlation between crashes and hard-braking event data reported by CVs. Trajectory-level CV data analyzed for a construction zone on interstate 70 provided valuable insights into travel time and traffic signal performance impacts on the surrounding road network. An 11-state analysis of electric and hybrid vehicle usage in proximity to public charging stations highlighted regions under and overserved by charging infrastructure, providing quantitative support for infrastructure investment allocations informed by real-world usage trends. CV data were further leveraged to document route choice behavior during active freeway incidents providing stakeholders with a historical record of observed routing patterns to inform future alternate route planning strategies. CV trajectory data analysis facilitated the identification of trip chaining activities resulting in improved outlier curation and realistic estimation of travel time metrics.</p> <p>The overall contribution of this thesis is developing analytical big data procedures to process billions of CV data records to inform engineering and public policy investments in infrastructure capacity, highway safety improvements, and new EV infrastructure. These scalable and efficient analysis techniques proposed in this dissertation will help agencies at the federal, state and local levels in addition to private sector stakeholders in assessing transportation system performance at-scale and enable informed data-driven decision making.</p>