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As technology continues to advance, the outdoor advertising industry is taking advantage of electronic signs, some of which are static electronic signs (SES), with the ability to automatically change the message shown on the sign at regular intervals. Studies indicate that SES has a negative impact on the drivers' visual attention and on vehicle control. However, the actual effects of the SES on the number of collisions have been difficult to prove conclusively. The objective of this article is to generate a clear understanding of the safety impacts of SES on the number collisions by conducting a before-and-after analysis with comparison groups. The analysis was based on a total of 10 SES along the Highway 27 and the Gardiner Expressway of the city of Toronto. The results of the before-and-after study revealed that there was not enough evidence to suggest that these signs have any impact on road safety along the adjacent roadway sections at a 95% confidence interval. The same results were obtained by comparing collisions that occurred during daylight and artificial light.

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Road agencies typically collect travel time information from their network to identify traffic bottlenecks and to quantify the effects of road improvement investments in terms of travel time improvements. Road agencies can benefit from newly emerging automated data collection technologies that acquire travel time information for a large geographical area at lower costs. The objective of the study presented in this paper was to evaluate travel time data obtained from three technologies (i.e., Bluetooth, in-vehicle navigation systems, and mobile phone probes) compared with travel time obtained from probe vehicles equipped with Global Positioning Systems (GPSs). Traffic data were obtained for road types (e.g., freeways, arterials, ramps) in the study area from commercial data providers for a relatively large study area in the Province of Ontario, Canada. A multicriteria methodology was developed to evaluate data from each data provider on the basis of accuracy, coverage, number of observations, and capability to provide data for special facilities such as high occupancy vehicle lanes. The findings of this research suggested that all three technologies could replace traditional, GPS-equipped probe vehicles. This paper offers several recommendations on the use of travel time data from different data providers.