Study On The Optimum Allocation Of Highway Monitoring Outfield Equipment

With the rapid development of China’s economy and the continuous increase of traffic volume, the monitoring system has played an increasingly important role in high-way safety. However, as the high-way traffic monitoring outfield equipment has been allocated based on the general or even vague national regulations in the past, it can no long meet the monitoring requirement today. The deep-seated conflict between the high requirements of high-way traffic safety and the limited monitoring outfield equipment calls for a more reasonable method to properly allocate the outfield equipment in the high-way monitoring system so as to upgrade the monitoring adequacy of the high-way.While current studies have focused on the site selection of some particular monitoring outfield equipment, the whole monitoring system and other factors that have a bearing on traffic safety in the allocation of monitoring resources have been neglected. Therefore, an optimum allocation method founded on the two-level weight system of monitoring source evaluation is proposed in this paper by utilizing the accident-causing theory and the analytic hierarchy process and abiding by the national monitoring regulations. Then an applicable model is established, and genetic algorithm is used for model solution. As a result, an optimum allocation plan is presented and the monitoring adequacy of the high-way is improved.VMS on the high-way of the fifth ring around Beijing is taken as the assessment example, and the result shows that the model proposed in this paper is able to improve the current outfield equipment allocation on the highway significantly without adding costs. The monitoring outfield equipment is fully utilized and better highway safety is achieved. It is the author’s intention that the model and relevant analysis will provide some reference for better monitoring outfield equipment allocation by transportation agencies in China.