Speed adjustment across freeway work zones under multiple feedback systems.

Authors

Pawan Neupane, Sabyasachee Mishra, Jason R Quicksall

Published in

Traffic injury prevention. Pages 1-10. Nov 13, 2026. Epub Nov 13, 2026.

Abstract

Work zones (WZs) are characterized by constrained roadway conditions and substantial variation in driving speed behavior. This study aims to investigate driver speed-adjustment behavior within a long freeway WZ, focusing on how speeds evolve across upstream and downstream segments under different speed-feedback mechanisms and traffic conditions.
High-resolution vehicle observations derived from video-based trajectory extraction were aggregated and analyzed to examine speed-adjustment behavior. Speed and time headway distributions were analyzed to understand traffic flow characteristics and speed adjustment patterns. For the speed-adjustment analysis, vehicle speeds were aggregated into one-minute intervals by lane, vehicle type, feedback condition, day type, and weather. A Bayesian generalized additive model (BGAM) was used to examine the influence of traffic and environmental factors on speed change, allowing for flexible modeling of nonlinear relationships.
All three feedback configurations were associated with greater downstream speed reduction than the no-feedback condition. Speed Wizard showed the strongest association, followed by the Dynamic Speed Feedback Sign and the combined Speed Wizard + Portable Changeable Message Sign condition. Speed adjustment was also associated with lane, vehicle type, day type, weather, and traffic volume. The results also reveal a nonlinear relationship between initial speed and subsequent speed change, with progressively greater downstream reduction observed at higher upstream speeds.
Speed feedback configuration and prevailing traffic conditions were associated with meaningful differences in segment-level speed adjustment within the observed freeway WZ. The findings indicated that message configurations, lane-specific behavior, vehicle composition, and traffic conditions should be considered when deploying speed feedback systems.

PMID:
43023984
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Nov 2026.

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