Investigation of Attributes of Kinematic Waves Preceding Traffic Collisions

Abstract

The present study examines attributes of backward-moving kinematic waves that preceded traffic collisions in the vicinity of a recurrent bottleneck and compares with the ones from collision free days. The speed of backward moving waves accompanying traffic collisions were faster than the ones observed from collision free days. Traffic states observed prior to collisions were closer to the semi-congested state. Duration and frequency of kinematic waves, and the speed difference in traffic states before and after the passage of waves are also examined. Attributes of kinematic waves accompanying the secondary traffic collisions are briefly discussed in the paper. The findings indicate different attributes of kinematic waves can be used as a safety surrogate measure.