THE IMPACTS OF WINTER MAINTENANCE EQUIPMENT ON VEHICLE DELAY ON INTERSTATES

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This paper evaluates the impacts of specialty winter maintenance equipment on vehicle delay by fusing Bluetooth speed, weather, and winter maintenance treatment data. A specialty plow capable of plowing two lanes in one pass is compared to a standard winter maintenance truck that plows and treats one lane per pass. Each type of equipment is analyzed on the same two-lane interstate highway, with the two trucks maintaining different sections to avoid cross contamination. The researchers deployed multiple Bluetooth nodes along the roadway to capture vehicle speeds during maintenance activities. The cumulative delay per mile is compared for the two trucks during light and heavy snowfall. The times when delay occurs are grouped into five-minute intervals for two scenarios including when the winter maintenance equipment has just passed through a Bluetooth node segment and for all recently-treated segments after the equipment has exited the highway. The results indicated the specialty plow creates a larger delay than the standard truck when plowing two lanes and a similar delay when plowing one lane and the shoulder. However, when looking solely at heavy snowfall, the delay is similar for each type of equipment, indicating the specialty plow is more effective during heavy snowfall.