Best Practices for INDOT-Funded Work Zone Police Patrols

Abstract

JOINT TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PROGRAMThe Joint Transportation Research Program serves as a vehicle for INDOT collaboration with higher education institutions and industry in Indiana to facilitate innovation that results in continuous improvement in the planning, design, construction, operation, management and economic efficiency of the Indiana transportation infrastructure. https://engineering.purdue.edu/JTRP/index_html Published reports of the Joint Transportation Research Program are available at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jtrp/ NOTICEThe contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views and policies of the Indiana Department of Transportation or the Federal Highway Administration. The report does not constitute a standard, specification or regulation.TECHNICAL REPORT STANDARD TITLE PAGE AbstractTransportation agencies across the U.S. are expending a great deal of effort to improve highway work zone safety. Among those efforts is a special fund for work zone enforcement established by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). The allocation of enforcement funding was based on expert knowledge and weights and scores applied to work zone characteristics considered relevant to traffic safety. The objective of the reported project was to develop a rational and defendable tool for programming police enforcement that maximizes the safety benefits of police enforcement in INDOT work zones.To understand what affects work zone safety, the research team carried out an extensive literature review, designed field experiments to evaluate the effect of selected enforcement strategies on drivers' behavior in work zones, and developed speed models incorporating the effect of police enforcement. The estimated speeds were used to derive CMFs that express the effect of the police enforcement strategy on work zone safety. Finally, the research team combined all of the developed components in a method of predicting the costs and the safety benefits in works zones under various enforcement strategies. This last method was included in the optimization tool for programming police enforcement in a group of planned work zones.The described project developed an optimization tool implemented in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with the OpenSolver add-in. The tool is flexible, straightforward, and easy to use. The user should be able to quickly become familiar with the required input, results, and obtained solution. Key Wordswork zone safety, police enforcement, enforcement optimization, Mixed Integer Programming Distribution StatementNo restrictions. This document is available to the public through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BEST PRACTICES FOR INDOT-FUNDED WORK ZONE POLICE PATROLSWork zone safety is a major concern for transportation agencies, especially when more maintenance projects are needed for the aging U.S. highway syste...