Multi‐scale traffic safety and operational performance study of large trucks on mountainous interstate highway

In addition to multi‐vehicle accidents, large trucks are also prone to single‐vehicle accidents on the mountainous interstate highways due to the complex terrain and fast‐changing weather. By integrating both historical data analysis and simulations, a multi‐scale approach is developed to evaluate the traffic safety and operational performance of large trucks on mountainous interstate highways in both scales of individual vehicle as well as traffic on the whole highway. A typical mountainous highway in Colorado is studied for demonstration purposes. Firstly, the ten‐year historical accident records are analyzed to identify the accident‐vulnerable‐locations (AVLs) and site‐specific critical adverse driving conditions. Secondly, simulation‐based single‐vehicle assessment is performed for different driving conditions at those AVLs along the whole corridor. Finally, the cellular‐automaton (CA)‐based simulation is carried out to evaluate the multi‐vehicle traffic safety as well as the operational performance of the traffic by considering the actual speed limits, including the differential speed limits (DSL) at some locations. It is found that the multi‐scale approach can provide insightful and comprehensive observations of the highway performance, which is especially important for mountainous highways.