Impact of Visibility Classification Schemes on Traffic Efficiency in Intelligent Freeway Management Systems A Mechanism for all-Weather Transportation Services with Vehicle-Road Coordination Technology

Visibility often has large impact on driving safety and speed, thus is an important factor to be considered in freeway management. In this article, we propose a methodology to evaluate the visibility and its impact on freeway transportation. We carefully examined the concept of visibility, and propose classification schemes and controlling mechanisms designed accordingly. Furthermore, we evaluate traffic efficiency as outcome of the schemes and likelihood of congestion by defining a Delay Index, modelling and simulating a few scenarios and benchmarking to big data statistics from China major cities. Results from our study show that with proper designed mechanisms, the overall efficiency and safety of the freeway transportation will be improved. Once applied to commercial systems and become fully operative in Vehicle-Road Coordination systems, transportation in all-weather conditions can be gradually achieved and will bring significant social and economic benefits.