The Wrong Way Driving Detection and Prevention effort between the Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) received national recognition at the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 97th Annual Meeting held in Washington, D.C. from January 7-11, 2018. The theme of this year’s TRB meeting was “Transportation: Moving the Economy of the Future.”
Each year, the Executive Committee of TRB authorizes the annual presentation of a limited number of awards for outstanding papers published by TRB and sponsored by selected Groups under the Technical Activities Council. At the meeting, TRB’s 2017 Freeway Operations Student Paper Award was presented to Adrian Sandt with UCF’s Department of Civil, Environmental & Construction Engineering for his paper entitled “Identifying Wrong-Way Driving Hotspots by Modeling Crash Risk and Assessing Durations of Wrong-Way Driving Events.”
CFX began the Wrong-Way Driving (WWD) Prevention and Detection Pilot Program in 2012 in partnership with UCF as part of our mission to ensure the safety of our customers. The WWD program’s main objective is to evaluate the use of “Wrong Way” signs equipped with flashing beacons to prevent wrong-way drivers from entering CFX’s expressway system. The devices also send out alerts to the Regional Traffic Management Center where operators can manage wrong-way driving alerts according to their operational procedures.
In January 2015, CFX installed its first wrong-way driving detection system at the State Road 528/State Road 520 Interchange. To date, CFX has equipped 35 ramp locations on CFX’s 118-mile system with the WWD countermeasures developed under this program.
About the Transportation Research Board
TRB is a program unit of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine – private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. The Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit https://national-academies.org.