Investments in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), including real-time Advance Warning Systems, can help improve safety by informing drivers of unexpected traffic conditions ahead, encouraging them to adjust their vehicle speed, and thereby helping to prevent avoidable collisions. This paper will examine two case studies where Advance Warning Systems were installed by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) on identified freeway sections in Southern Ontario to address current and anticipated traffic safety problems. In the first case study, a Queue-end Warning System (QWS), designed to inform drivers approaching the end of a vehicle queue, was implemented on two highway approaches to the Niagara Region border crossings. In the second case study, an Advanced Warning System (AWS) was deployed to provide notice of anticipated ramp queues in advance of a single high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane and bypass tunnel. The short tunnel (approximately 90 m long) is the end point of the HOV lane, and has a curve to the right that leads traffic to the Highway 401 Westbound Collector. This paper describes the deployment of these QWS and AWS systems. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E216511.
Samenvatting