Traffic accident and emission reduction through intermittent release measures for heavy fog weather

Abstract

Heavy fog weather can increase traffic accidents and lead to freeway closures which result in delays. This paper aims at exploring traffic accident and emission characteristics in heavy fog, as well as freeway intermittent release measures for heavy fog weather. A driving simulator experiment is conducted for obtaining driving behaviors in heavy fog. By proposing a multi-cell cellular automaton (CA) model based on the experimental data, the role of intermittent release measures on the reduction of traffic accidents and CO emissions is studied. The results show that, affected by heavy fog, when cellular occupancy [Formula: see text], the probability of traffic accidents is much higher; and CO emissions increase significantly when [Formula: see text]. After an intermittent release measure is applied, the probability of traffic accidents and level of CO emissions become reasonable. Obviously, the measure can enhance traffic safety and reduce emissions.