The University of Kentucky Evaluated Truck Driver Satisfaction with Roadway Safety and Traffic Information Delivered via In-Vehicle Alerts.
Kentucky, United States
In-vehicle Alert System for Commercial Motor Vehicle Drivers
Summary Information
In-vehicle telematic devices can be used to share safety alerts with Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) drivers. This study demonstrated a proof of concept for the delivery of timely in-vehicle alerts to warn CMV drivers of approaching roadway hazards. The study convened a body of experts as a study advisory committee (SAC), surveyed the CMV community for their in-vehicle alert preferences. The online survey of the CMV community remained open for three weeks, from December 14, 2018, through January 4, 2019, and resulted in 1,230 responses out of 70,000 distributed surveys via an online link. The project initially focused on data categories such as traffic work zones, congestion, incidents, high-crash corridors, oversize and overweight restrictions, CMV parking, hazardous weather, and low-clearance bridges. Evaluating CMV survey findings and determining study feasibility led the committee to include traffic congestion, real-time incidents, and work zone data in the pilot study. The study conducted a final pilot evaluation which used a telematics platform for sharing information with CMV drivers for all three alert categories between May 2-8, 2021. This comparative analysis identified the incidence of Type II errors, or false positives, for issuing alerts. A total of 644 issued alerts during this period were evaluated through a geospatial and temporal framework to ensure issued alerts matched the corresponding source data.
METHODOLOGY
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s (KYTC) open portal architecture, GoKY, provided the data used to enable the in-vehicle alerts. This portal displays transportation conditions, alerts, and other features to the driving public. KYTC partnered with a nonprofit corporation to make use of their propriety App, originally developed as a tool to notify CMV drivers on roadway conditions. The App issues alerts for drivers that may encounter roadway safety hazards based on their location and direction. These alerts included work zones, traffic incidents, congestion, weather, truck parking, rest areas, high wind areas, steep grades, brake check areas, chain up areas, and runaway truck ramps, among others. The app was offered through smartphone devices, as well as select telematic and electronic logging devices.
FINDINGS
- The CMV survey demonstrated that commercial motor vehicle drivers have clear preferences regarding potential in-vehicle alerts. The alert preferences (percentage of respondents who were either “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in receiving alert notifications) included: traffic work zones (76.3 percent), traffic congestion (78.2 percent), and real-time incidents (80.6 percent).
- The alert preferences dropped for the remaining categories, including crash corridors (71.5 percent), rollover risk (66.1 percent), overweight restrictions (56.1 percent), and oversize restrictions (50.8 percent).
- Study findings also revealed that most respondents operated within small fleets (77 percent) and the CMV community had a high adoption rate of existing in-vehicle devices (78 percent).
- The study confirmed that safety benefits could be realized when transportation agencies shared roadway hazard alerts through CMV in-vehicle devices provided that the improvements to the GoKY was implemented as suggested by the pilot study.
