| A lane closure can significantly reduce the vehicles speed through the freeway bottleneck, resulting in the congestion buildup. As the queue length grows past the posted static warning signs in the congested zone surprising many drivers which can greatly increase the probability of rear end vehicle crash. In such circumstances, a real time traffic safety information system could help minimize rear end collisions. Current traffic information systems use radio, internet, or cellular communication to convey the information of congestion to the drivers. This information is generated using static sensor probes that often give a rough estimate of traffic parameters e.g., end-of-queue location, and travel time. Additionally, the update to the traffic data occurs quite infrequently and sometimes is obsolete by the time when a driver receives it. However, these systems suffer from issues such as latency and reliance on third party and/or dedicated infrastructure support.;This paper presents architecture, functionality, and field evaluation of a newly developed real-time traffic information system using DSRC based V2V communication without needing any roadside infrastructure support. The developed system utilizes an ad-hoc host vehicle acting as central control from among the DSRC equipped vehicles present on the road to dynamically acquire important traffic parameters such as starting and ending locations of congestion, and travel time. Furthermore, it provides useful traffic alerts to DSRC equipped vehicles to improve drivers' situational awareness.;The algorithm designed for the system makes it fully adaptable to any congestion scenario whether due to a work zone or an incident, or due to regular rush hour traffic. The developed system is well suited for operational deployment in future, particularly during the initial phase of the DSRC market penetration, because it incorporates DSRC equipped programmable changeable message signs (PCMSs) to convey the warning messages to non-DSRC equipped vehicles. Furthermore, a rigorous analysis has been conducted to investigate the minimum DSRC market penetration rate needed for the developed system to successfully acquire and disseminate TT and SLoC for the work zone. The results of this analysis suggest that a market penetration rate ranging from 20% to 35% is needed for the system to reliably work. |
