This thesis presents a set of system algorithms and a feasibility analysis of an automated enforcement system that uses dedicated short-range communication with an emphasis on seatbelt and speed enforcement. The current seatbelt and speed enforcement limitations and disadvantages can be overcome because future vehicles will be equipped with devices that can be used to communicate with other vehicles or the traffic infrastructure. One limitation of the current seatbelt enforcement system is that it relies only on human vision. Today’s automated photo speed enforcement also has the following major limitations and disadvantages: fixed position enforcement, system installation and maintenance costs, enforcement based only on spot speed, sensitivity to lighting conditions, and vulnerability to sprays and obstructions that might block the license plates. This thesis proposes an automated enforcement system that uses wireless communication (IEEE 802.11p protocol), which can resolve all of the above-mentioned problems and is also more efficient, accurate, and cost effective.

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication using Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology promises to help drastically reduce vehicle collisions. DSRC allows vehicles in a highly mobile and complex network to send and receive safety messages with more reliability and lower latency compared with other wireless technologies used for automotive communications. However, there are many factors that could cause a safety-critical automotive application to become unreliable due to communication failures. While the reliability of V2V communication has been a subject of study by several researchers, there are still open questions regarding how the placement of the DSRC devices (inside or outside the host vehicle), the vehicle’s interior elements and the differences in altitude can affect the V2V communications. This article provides experimental testing data and analyses in order to quantify the impacts of relative vehicle speeds, altitude differences between vehicles, and interior obstacles on V2V communication range and reliability for opposite traffic, in both city and highway environments. We discuss how these results can adversely affect the design parameters of safety critical applications by considering the V2V application “Safe Pass Advisory” on two-lane rural highways.

Dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) systems, a form of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) systems, were placed on Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) snowplows to request signal preemption. The study took place along five state routes in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. Snowplows and intersections were equipped with the technology to communicate and process requests for signal preemption. Signal performance and vehicle performance analysis were performed to understand the impacts that snowplows requesting signal preemption had. Signal performance analysis was done to determine how snowplows with V2X systems using DSRC affected signals. Vehicle performance analysis was done to see if plowing and traffic efficiency and performance were improved, as well as evaluating safety implications of signal preemption. To perform the signal performance analysis, V2X data were collected to understand how often signal preemption was requested by snowplows, how often it was granted by signal controllers, and how long preemption requests affected signal controller timing. Snowplows requested preemption over 50 percent of the time they approached a signalized intersection. Of messages that requested signal preemption, over 80 percent were granted. On average, signal controllers are affected by preemption processing for less than 5 minutes. This shows that the system works as designed, is used often, and does not have adverse effects on signal controller. Data for vehicle performance analysis included analysis of snowplow speed data, general travel speed data, and crash data. These were collected to analyze the effects of snowplows requesting signal preemption on vehicle performance. The analysis showed that snowplow speeds are not changed due to the signal preemption system, but the number of times snowplows stopped was reduced. General travel speeds on equipped routes were more consistently closer to the speed limits than not equipped routes. Crash data showed a greater negative decrease on equipped routes than on not equipped routes. These findings showed minimal changes or impacts to vehicle performance, but anecdotal evidence from snowplow drivers indicates benefits from the system overall. There were various limitations in the analysis. Data granularity differed among datasets, making comparison between the different datasets difficult without reducing data integrity. Some datasets did not have much data, making statistical significance unclear. With these data limitations, conclusions were drawn, but do not fully describe all the potential benefits and impacts of snowplows with V2X systems that use DSRC to request signal preemption. Additional research is needed to better understand the impacts that snowplows requesting signal preemption has on different maintenance metrics, such as fuel usage and time spent plowing. It is also recommended that data used is explored for ways to improve the granularity.

A sensitivity analysis was performed on the transit signal priority (TSP) requesting threshold to evaluate its impact on bus performance and general traffic. Two distinct bus routes were evaluated to determine the optimal requesting threshold that would balance the positive impacts on bus performance with the negative impacts on general traffic. Route 217, a conventional bus route, and the Utah Valley Express (UVX), a bus rapid transit line, utilize a dedicated short-range communication (DSRC)-based TSP system as part of their normal, day-to-day operations. Using field-generated data exclusively, bus performance and general traffic were evaluated over a 7-month period from February through August 2019. Bus performance was evaluated through on-time performance (OTP), schedule deviation, travel time, and dwell time, while the traffic analysis was performed by evaluating split failure, change in green time, and the frequency at which TSP was served. The requesting thresholds evaluated for Route 217 were 5-, 3-, 2-, and 0-minutes, which stipulate how far behind schedule the bus must be in order to request TSP. For UVX, 5-minutes and 2-minutes, as well as ON and OFF scenarios were evaluated; ON meant the buses were always requesting regardless of how late they were, while OFF meant that no requests were made and operations would be as if there were no TSP at all. A combination of observational and statistical analyses concluded with convincing evidence that OTP, schedule deviation, and travel time improve as the requesting threshold approaches zero with negligible impacts to general traffic. For Route 217, as the requesting threshold changed from 3, to 2, to 0 minutes, OTP increased 2.0 and 2.5 percent, respectively, mean schedule deviation improved 15.9 and 20.9 seconds, respectively, and travel time decreased at 72 percent of timepoints. Meanwhile, negative impacts to traffic occurred if an increase in split failure was measured after TSP was served, a phenomenon observed a maximum of once every 43 minutes. For UVX, as the requesting threshold changed from 5, to 2 minutes, to ON, OTP increased 7.6 and 4.7 percent, respectively, mean schedule deviation improved 24.3 and 15.0 seconds, respectively, and travel time decreased between 72 percent of timepoints. Thus, it is concluded that under the TSP system as implemented, bus performance improves as the requesting threshold approaches zero with inconsequential impacts to general traffic.

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